Artistes Back In Residence

Up near Lincoln Center on 67th Street and Central Park West, Café des Artistes is returning to its roots, with a new management team at the helm. After a 15-year stint as The Leopard, the 110 year-old year old building is reopening the café in 2027 under the management of Ariel Arce and Max Katzenberg of AirMax Hospitality (Tokyo Record Bar, Pearl Box, among others). The duo are bringing back the old name, and hopefully, the old crowd who used to live in the attached Hotel des Artistes (which, at different points in time, has included artists Marcel Duchamp, Ellsworth Kelly and Norman Rockwell, actors Gary Oldman and Joel Grey, dancer Isadora Duncan, and former Vogue editor Gloria Schiff). Famously, it is the restaurant that inspired the backdrop for Louis Malle’s popular 1981 film My Dinner with Andre. 

“We have spent countless hours building the relationship with the community and bringing in the old stories to color the future of the restaurant,” Arce told me over the phone. This weekend in the Sunday Times, they are taking out a half-page ad calling on former regulars to get in contact with them, and bring in memories of what made Café des Artistes so special in its heyday. “We need to honor the history, but also usher it into a modern landscape,” she added. They’re continuing to hunt for a culinary director.