Times Square Gains a Restaurant from a Chef With Michelin Cred Today

Chef John Fraser brings a whole complex of new dining options to Times Square this week, starting with an all-day American brasserie located inside the luxe new Edition hotel. The revered chef behind Michelin-starred Nix will oversee the several food and beverage options within the 43-story hotel, including the Terrace Restaurant and Outdoor Gardens opening on the ninth floor today.

The restaurant was inspired by French brasseries and American chophouses, and is meant to be the hotel’s everyday dining option, with pastas and steaks on the menu. Appetizers like a bass crudo, mushroom carpaccio, and grilled octopus will also be available, the Post reports. Other dishes include broiled lobster and baked cauliflower parmesan.

It’ll be a 14,000-square-foot space; the main dining room will seat 85, not including a 30-seat bar, while an outdoor restaurant bar area will seat 65. Another 50 or so people can fit on the restaurant’s terrace, a space that’s supposed to imitate an outdoor garden with plants, trees, and ivy throughout. Plus, a 5,800-square-foot beer garden is included in the layout.

But this is just one of several restaurant concepts Fraser is charged with overseeing in the new hotel, located at 701 Seventh Ave. on 47th Street. Developed by Ian Schrager, the co-creator of famed 70s nightclub Studio 54, the hotel will also be home to a fine-dining restaurant called 701West and a cabaret venue called Paradise Club starting next month.

Fraser will focus on French, Asian, and Latin fare at the upscale 701 West, which is set to open in March, according to a statement from the hotel. The space will seat up to 166 people within a dining room, a bar room, and a terrace.

He’ll get most creative with the menu at the 5,000-square-foot Paradise Club, which will serve everything from hot dogs to caviar, according to the hotel. The event space will include a main dining room, two private rooms, a bar, and terrace that can seat over 200 people.

The chef will also be charged with the food and drink offerings at the hotel’s 10th floor lobby bar and lounge. The hotel officially opens today, although it’ll only begin welcoming guests on March 12. In addition to all the different food and drink concepts, the Edition Hotel will also bring 76,000 square feet of retail space to Times Square. The Edition brand, a partnership between Schrager and Marriott International, is known for its upscale dining and luxuriously hip atmospheres in its existing locations in Miami Beach and New York’s Flatiron.

Fraser — who made his name at the now-shuttered Upper West Side restaurant Dovetail — brings previous hotel experience from the East Village’s Standard East, where he created the critically acclaimed Narcissa and the more casual Narcbar. He stepped away from those ventures last year to focus on the Edition, and he’s kept busy since. Earlier this month, he also introduced a new menu at the Met.