Just under a month after Lincoln Center’s brand new David Geffen Hall opened its doors, comes Afro Caribbean-inspired restaurant, Tatiana. The restaurant “[draws] on the city’s vibrant 1980s music and art scenes and [pays] homage to the often-overlooked places which shaped the city’s fabric and creative culture,” shared author and James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi.
“Opening Tatiana at Lincoln Center is a longtime dream come true for me,” says Onwuachi. “Having grown up in the Bronx, I know this area has long represented arts and culture.”
The menu explores reimagined childhood favorites of Onwuachi like Truffled Chopped Cheese Buns with dry aged ribeye, smoked mozzarella and taleggio; Egusi Soup Dumplings stuffed with black sea bass served with Nigerian red stew and pickled pearl onions; Braised Oxtails with rice and peas, thumbelina carrot and chayote squash.
Each ingredient calls upon his formative years while demonstrating his profound professional experience within the industry. Visitors of Lincoln Center can choose from an a la carte menu or order from the three-course pre-theater menu.
But the homage to Onwuachi’s upbringing doesn’t stop at the menu. Through Modellus Novus’ creative direction, Tatiana invites diners to relish in the “cultural vibrancy” of NYC’s rich music and art scene, in addition to remembering the loss of San Juan Hill, a once prominently Black and Brown neighborhood in the area that was torn down to make room for Lincoln Center in the 50s.
“The design of the restaurant celebrates Onwuachi’s admiration for a complex and contradictory era and city that formed his own identity, while creating an enduring part of that city’s present and future, one that exudes a spirit of outspoken self-expression and hustler’s grit,” shares the press release.
Guests will travel back in time with Onwuachi to summers spent playing by fire hydrants with industrial, chromate treated steel columns. Graphite glazed tiles resemble oil-stained wet streets on a sunny day in NYC and park bench-inspired banquettes furnish the interior. An open kitchen layout provides an up close and personal, clear viewing to all the restaurant’s magic.
“Working hand-in-hand with Chef Kwame, as well as the team at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects overseeing the holistic David Geffen Hall renovation, we created a welcoming and celebratory atmosphere for the many, a space that takes traditionally industrial or ‘ugly’ materials and delights in revealing their beauty, an environment where people from every corner of our city can feel at home. It has been an immense privilege to play a part in this project, with partners pushing their respective fields to new frontiers, and we can’t wait for New Yorkers to enliven the restaurant and make Tatiana their own,” said Preeti Sriratana, Partner/Managing Director, Modellus Novus.
Find out more on their website here.
Where: David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza