Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Public Hotel Restaurants Open This Week

Tonight is the invite-only opening party at the new Public Hotel (215 Chrystie Street) from hotelier Ian Schrager, who has teamed up with Jean-Georges Vongerichten for its restaurants and bars. They include Public Kitchen as the showcase restaurant, along with several other food-and-drink spots: The outdoor terrace of the Bowery Garden, a luncheonette/grocery/coffee shop called Louis (named after Schrager’s son), Diego that’s “akin to a private gentlemen’s club in London,” a scene-y rooftop bar, and the lobby bar.

Initial reports pointed to today and tomorrow as the opening date, but The New York Times and a phone call confirms reservations for the restaurant start June 10.

At the 150-seat Public Kitchen, the menu is “a snapshot of New York” and will include pizza, pastas, pot stickers, and smoked fish, according to Flo Fab. Diego is named for artist Diego Rivera, “and its centerpiece is a fine tapestry of a controversial mural by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera that was removed from Rockefeller Center in the 1934, before it was finished.” Schrager bought the rights for the hi-res image of the mural from the Diego Rivera Foundation.

Public Kitchen is the latest for Jean-Georges, who has fourteen restaurants with his name on them in the region, including the Hamptons. Also in progress: the 10,000- square-foot casual restaurant at Pier 17 he’s opening with partner Phil Suarez, as well as an adjacent seafood market in the Tin Building.

Vongerichten and Schrager paired up for the Marriott International-backed hotel chain in Chicago in 2011 for The Pump Room, when Schrager spent $60 million in the purchase and renovations to the Ambassador East. Schrager put the hotel up for sale in 2015 and sold it in 2016.