Profile

Formerly the bull-toting Mason Dixon, this self-styled “deli, restaurant, townhall” spared no expense if you consider how many townhouses-worth of reclaimed wood, gilded frames, antique leather-bound books, sepia photographs, and prohibition-era fixtures went into its construction (and then tack on the Tats Cru mural and functioning deli masking the bar’s entrance.) Of course, that may also explain why Matt Levine's (of the now-shuttered Eldridge) whole concept just feels overly orchestrated—a bit like those period-portrait studios where enthusiastic families mug for the camera in faux-mustaches and musty topcoats. Nevertheless, a crowd fills up the standing room-only bar nightly, with food options roving from the fancy (truffle mushroom pizza) to the creative (Sheperd's-pie empanada) to the straight-up indulgent (five kinds of grilled cheese or five kinds of macaroni and cheese). But this is to be expected with Levine’s celebrity-packed Rolodex offering up enough Page Six who’s who sightings to merit the “in” crowd’s stamp of approval. — Patrick Siggins