(Photo courtesy of Cafe Clover)
Speaking of radical art, a health-minded cafe that opens in the West Village tonight takes design cues from Viennese secessionist architecture and painters like Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti.
Cafe Clover serves what’s described in a press release as a “health-focused, modern American menu,” but the 70-seat dining room, with its vintage mirrors and blue banquettes, is inspired by Viennese salons, as well as “the artists that flocked to the West Village over the twentieth century.”
Octopus
It’s unlikely anyone was eating like this in 19th century Vienna, though: chef David Standridge (formerly of Market Table and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon) designed the menu with the help of consultant Dr. Mike Roussell, the Director of Nutrition at Peak Performance gym and an author of The Six Pillars of Nutrition. That might be why dishes are sprinkled with ingredients like chia seeds, “shaved roots,” sunflower kernels, and teff, an Ethiopian grain that’s apparently in the running for “new superfood” status. To be fair, there’s also a risotto, but it’s made with ivory lentils — and the tagliatelle is fashioned from quinoa. Heck, even the cocktail menu lists ingredients like hemp milk and quinoa vodka.
Baby Beets & Apples w Teff Crisp
The main man behind this venture is David Rabin (his partners are Kyle Hotchkiss Carone, Jeff Kadish and Joe Dowdell). He owned meatpacking hot-spot Lotus before opening The Lambs Club in midtown, so he knows a thing or two about feeding models — it’s not completely unexpected that his new establishment offers up the obligatory side of kale.
Ivory Lentil Risotto (Photo courtesy of Cafe Clover.)
Check out the rest of the menu below and feel the lovage.
Cafe Clover, 10 Downing St. at 6th Avenue (entrance on Downing), (212) 675-4350; open Monday through Wednesday from 5:30pm – 11:00pm, Thursday through Saturday from 5:30pm – 11:30pm, and Sunday from 5:00pm – 10:00pm.