
After more than eighteen months of searching, George Mendes has found the perfect spot for his still-unnamed new restaurant: 31 West 17th Street. The veteran of Bouley, Wallsé, and Tocqueville plans a September opening. Morimoto and Buddakan architect Stephanie Goto will design the space around Mendes’s menu: “Mediterranean food based on my heritage from the Iberian Peninsula: the food of Portugal, Spain, and France,” he says. Mendes avoids the “progressive” label — and don’t even think of calling him a molecular gastronomist — but he’s a fair hand with immersion circulators, syringes, and other tools of the 21st-century kitchen. Expect original food, at the very least.
Related: George Mendes Holds Down the Wallsé Fort Until Help Arrives