A new museum restaurant contender arrives this summer on the Lower East Side, further cementing New York’s status as a cultural destination for art and food. The New Museum is opening Oberon, its first full-service restaurant as part of its massive recent
expansion, at 235 Bowery, near Stanton Street, on Tuesday, July 7.
Oberon is joining New York’s recent art-dining ventures, such as Marcel at Sotheby’s new Upper East Side headquarters, Zoli next to the art center Amant in East Williamsburg, and the Frick Museum’s first restaurant in 89 years on the Upper East Side.
The Oberon Group, which is behind NYC wine bars like Rhodora, June, and Rucola, is running the New Museum restaurant. The company tagged chef and artist Julia Sherman and Ali Ghriskey as co-executive chefs (both of whom are Rhode Island School of Design alumni). Sherman is known for building salad gardens at MoMA PS1, as well as authoring cookbooks like Salad for President. Ghriskey worked at various New York City restaurants such as the now-shuttered Colicchio & Sons and Bombay Bread Bar; and they were most recently the opening chef de cuisine of Cafe Zaffri.
Oberon’s modern American menu, which sources a lot from the Hudson Valley, includes composed salads, per Sherman’s speciality. Look for the little gem salad with radishes, snap peas, and a yuzu vinaigrette; the canary melon with sage and sumac; and watercress with Asian pears, macadamia nuts, and a coconut vinaigrette. Non-salad appetizers include deviled eggs, oysters, a black bass crudo, charred broccolini with pumpkin seeds and tahini, and chickpea fries with caviar.
Entrees include a dry-aged beef burger with Gruyere; roasted cabbage with hatch chile crunch, brown butter, and green aji; chanterelles and pea pasta; roasted half chicken with fig leaves and a mandarinquat chutney; steelhead trout with a fave puree; and skirt steak with salsa verde. A rep notes that starters range from $12 to $24, with entrees from $26 to $42.
Cocktails range from $18 to $22, with options like the El Chapo ($16) with a small Modelo, primo aperitivo, and grapdeuit; the Kyoto, Cuba ($21) with white rum, Smith & Cross, shiso, lychee, young bonepines, and super-limes; and the Night Shift ($22) with vodka, cognac, espresso, a Guinness syrup, and Tahitian vanilla. Nonalcoholic options, beers, and wines by the glass and bottle round out the drinks.
Keeping in line with the art museum setting, diners will get farewell Raaka dark mint chocolates covered in wrappers with quotes or poems by artist and musician Laurie Anderson.
The striking 90-seat, 1,470-square-foot space situated inside the museum is designed by architecture studio OMA (which worked on the overall revamp). Per the press release, “metals and brutalist textures mingle with warm, time-worn woods,” which translates to cork ceilings and walls, dim amber uplighting, dark wood tables and chairs designed by artistMinjae Kim, tons of plants, and a metal exterior with fogged windows. Behind the bar is an AI interactive installation by artist Ian Cheng.
The modern art museum opened in 2007, temporarily closed in 2024 to expand, and reopened this past March with 60,000 square feet and the exhibition New Humans: Memories of the Future.
For Oberon’s first week, it’ll be open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. through Monday, July 13. Its full hours will be from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, and then from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Mondays. Book reservations on Resy.
