Daniel Humm, the chef behind the three-Michelin-star Eleven Madison Park, is opening his first standalone restaurant in Manhattan. Called simply Humm, it welcomes diners from 10 October at 435 Hudson Street, in the space once occupied by EN Japanese Brasserie, after almost two years of development.
The project leans heavily on Humm’s circle of friends. Italian artist Francesco Clemente, who has already painted murals for Clemente Bar and the lounge at Eleven Madison Park, was commissioned to fresco the ceiling. The work covers about 1,200 sq ft, took two months to finish and features stars, animals, trains and clocks as a meditation on the passage of time. “This place was really created by my friends,” Humm said. Further Clemente works hang in a private dining room wrapped in a fabric tent.
The interiors are by Pierre Yovanovitch, the designer based in New York and Paris, in his first restaurant project in the city. The 5,000 sq ft space is split into a sequence of tall rooms with a 1980s mood and nods to grand New York hotels such as The Carlyle. The bar seats about 30 on mustard velvet banquettes, with geometric tables and chairs that reference towers by Philip Johnson and Kevin Roche, plus a wink to Sex and the City. A burgundy lounge sits opposite the maître d’ stand beneath a red acoustic light fixture shaped like a mushroom, and a scenic tile mural depicts a sunset. The main dining room is dressed in gold and burgundy, with lacquered red partitions, frosted glass chandeliers and stone floors bordered with creatures from Clemente’s painting.
Art continues throughout, with pieces by Louise Bourgeois and Roni Horn and a red textured sculpture by Rashid Johnson near the host stand. At the centre of the open kitchen stands a large tile-clad wood-fired oven that can be seen from the front door. The menu is built around elevated wood-fired cooking, including charcoal-grilled fish and roast chicken for two. “I want to open the door and I want to see the fire,” Humm said.
Yovanovitch said he wanted to bring back the spirit of New York without creating a pastiche. Clemente, for his part, texted the chef in capital letters shortly before the ceiling was complete, and later wrote that seeing the lit room had gone beyond his expectations. Humm describes the restaurant as his most personal project to date.
