Eater Inside: Park Avenue Summer

After: Kalina, 6/11/07.

At this time, the Kalina would like you to please have a look at this, a photo he's just taken of Park Avenue Summer. This is the restaurant/experiment that replaces Park Avenue Cafe, long a mainstay at Park Avenue and 63rd Street. The plan for this space, designed and built off site by AvroKO, is to have it change four times a year, as go the seasons. This summer look (above) will prevail until early September, when the venue will undergo a transition to Park Avenue Autumn. Led by son-of-Alan Michael Stillman, the idea more than a year and $1.5 million in the making.

The executive chef of all four seasons is Craig Koketsu, who for Summer will create, and here's where we turn it over to the PR materials, "the summer-inspired menu with contemporary classic dishes, such as Lemon Sole with Provencal Vegetables, Fire Roasted Lamb with Barbecued Cherries, and Lobster Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette. Richard Leach, James Beard award winner will be executive pastry chef with a stable of summer confections that delight for their concentrated flavors and stunning presentations."

Now as far as this whole seasonal transition business:

In order to facilitate the complete transformation of the restaurant four times a year with a minimum of downtime for the restaurant, AvroKO spent six months offsite, creating an elaborate architecture, which can be installed and easily converted with intricate panels to form the basis for each seasonal design. All physical components for the four Park Avenue projects will be born from one key necessity: transformability. To effectively change both the mood and the architectural details of the space, several systems of receptacles will be devised throughout the restaurant.

Custom steel wall frames will surround the space and will be built to accept differing seasonal panels. These panels will not only have unique materials for each season, ranging from wood, to porcelain, to mirror, but also have unique architectural details that will affect the style of the space overall.

Before: Kalina, 1/30/06.