Fall Restaurant Preview
The chef Daniel Humm’s new cocktail bar is a collaboration with the Italian painter Francesco Clemente.
Listen to this article · 4:17 min Learn more
The acclaimed Italian painter Francesco Clemente had always wanted to have a drink named after him (the Bellini, after all, is a homage to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini). Mr. Clemente, now 72 and based in New York City since 1981, is getting a whole bar named after him.
Clemente Bar, which will open on Oct. 10 on the floor above Eleven Madison Park and begin accepting reservations in mid-September, is the next step in the evolution of Daniel Humm’s world-renowned restaurant to plant-based dining. Mr. Clemente has made several dreamlike paintings with amorous figures to set the mood at Mr. Humm’s new jewel-box space, serving innovative cocktails and snacks; an eight-seat chef’s counter will offer a vegan, faster-paced (and more gently priced) counterpoint to the $365-a-head prix fixe tasting menu downstairs.
“When Eleven Madison started with this plant-based chapter, we realized our audience is changing — it’s much more diverse, it’s much younger,” said Mr. Humm, 47, who reopened the restaurant in 2021 with an entirely plant-based menu after a pandemic closing. It was the first vegan restaurant to receive three Michelin stars.
The idea for the bar grew out of the close friendship between the chef and the artist, who were introduced several years ago by the art dealer Vito Schnabel. In conversations over the past two years, Mr. Humm shared his idea to create a more casual, accessible experience upstairs, in the former private dining space overlooking the main dining room. “We still believe so much in the craft of cooking and bringing it to a certain level,” Mr. Humm said, “but wanted to do it in an environment that felt cool and personal.”
The two men share a love of Kronenhalle Bar, in Zurich, the city where Mr. Humm grew up, and which Mr. Clemente frequented in his formative years with his Swiss art dealer. That dark, sumptuous space, studded with artworks by Miro, Picasso and Klee, became a key reference for Clemente Bar. (Mr. Humm sent his architect and interior designer for the project, Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works, to Zurich for inspiration.)
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.