Danny Meyer's first restaurant, Union Square Cafe, introduced New Yorkers to a blend of Italian and American cuisines that's still popular today. The restaurant also helped popularize the notion that a menu should be largely informed by what's available at the greenmarket. And perhaps most importantly, Union Square Cafe established a style of energetic, attentive service that has since spread throughout restaurants of all stripes in New York and beyond. It's an extremely important restaurant, and on Saturday night, it got the celebration that it deserved.
Check out the photos above to see regulars and distinguished alumni enjoying themselves in that odd, but charming space on East 16th Street one last time. Daniel Krieger started shooting at the beginning of service around 6 p.m., and kept capturing the scene through the first half of the evening. In a few months, Danny Meyer and his crew will open a new iteration of Union Square Cafe on the corner of Park Avenue and 19th Street.
