Profile

Do restaurants, like people, need to keep reinventing themselves to stay fresh? Michael Stillman, son of Alan and scion of the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, tested that hypothesis with Park Avenue Summer, the reinvented Park Avenue Cafe. In collaboration once more with AvroKO, the design firm responsible for Manhattan Ocean Club’s transformation into Quality Meats, Stillman is borrowing a conceptual page from the Four Seasons’ book, virtually creating a new restaurant every three months. Seasonality dictates not only the American menu, which is overseen by Quality Meats’ Craig Koketsu, but the place settings, the uniforms, the graphics, the wine displays, and most of all the décor. Convertible panels slide into steel wall frames, a variable lighting plan allows for dramatic shifts in ambience, and furniture is rigged for effortless fabric changes. But this is one restaurant that isn’t built for the long haul: Every few months, it shuts down to make way for the next season's Park Avenue. — Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

Like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano and the buzzards of Hinckley, Ohio, the design team AvroKO returns this week to Park Avenue Spring, where seasonality dictates everything from the place settings to the décor to the very name of the place (the restaurant is called Park Avenue Winter until the 26th). The menu changes, too, as evidenced by a new dessert called the rhubarb trio—Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (11/5/07)

Featured In

• Where to Eat 2008 (1/7/08)
• Where to Eat 2008: Best New Restaurants of the Year (1/7/08)
• Where to Eat 2008: Best Up-and-Coming Chefs (1/7/08)
• How Park Avenue Summer Became Park Avenue Autumn (10/8/07)
• Restaurant Openings: Hill Country, Caffè Emilia, and Park Avenue Summer (6/11/07)
• Where to Go for Wine Week (10/2/06)