An ambitious, young restaurateur is currently plotting a luxurious new seafood restaurant inspired by what is perhaps New York’s most iconic restaurant.
The Four Seasons is widely considered to be one of the most significant restaurants ever established in New York City. Opened in 1959, The Four Seasons was one of the first American restaurants to introduce the concept of a menu that rotates according to the seasons. With a concept designed chiefly by hospitality legend James Beard, The Four Seasons is generally attributed with pioneering New American Cuisine, singlehandedly elevating American culture and establishing a new cultural legacy for New York.
Today, The Four Seasons is known for its lasting legacy of fusing fine dining with high culture and design. In fact, the restaurant’s signature serviceware (designed by no less than Ada Louise Huxtable) are now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Sadly, the restaurant’s original location in the iconic Seagram’s building sadly closed in 2016 after nearly 80 years of operation. A second Four Seasons briefly operated from 2018 – 2019, but that too closed down before it could find proper footing. Now though, a new player on the scene is hoping to revive the spirit of the original Four Seasons with a brand new upscale restaurant inspired by the NYC icon.
Olivia Wang is a successful, young restaurateur who has already established two popular restaurants in New York. The chairperson of Otta Management Group, Olivia and her team have been responsible for both Crop Circle and Meno in the West Village. Crop Circle is the first New York restaurant to introduce guokui, a kind of stuffed flatbread that is similar to a Chinese pizza or pancake. Meno meanwhile is a modern tea and coffee experience that cultivates a tranquil space in which guests can enjoy a relaxing respite from the daily struggles of New York living. Now, Olivia and the Otta Management Group are preparing to launch their third restaurant.
In October 2021, Wang spoke to the New York Post after signing the lease for a new space at The Centrale, a new luxury building located at 138 East 50th Street. Wang revealed that she would be calling the new restaurant The Four Seasons – New American Restaurant, calling the original Four Seasons a New York institution that “lives in people’s hearts” and stated that she “wants to bring it back.” She has even allegedly hired a former executive chef from Four Season’s previous iteration, though the chef asked not to be named.
Despite potential concerns that the team may not have proper rights to the Four Seasons name, Olivia and the team are moving closer and closer to the prospective Fall 2022 launch date. Most recently, they have just applied for a full liquor license for the new Four Seasons, describing the concept as serving “chef-driven, upscale seafood cuisine.” The restaurant features two and a half floors, with a ground floor capacity of 140 guests, a cellar capacity of 70 guests, and a smaller mezzanine with a total capacity of 37 guests.
Competing with a legacy as well-known as The Four Season’s will not be easy, but no challenge is too much for the indefatigable restaurateur. Continuing the Four Seasons tradition of fusing design with fine dining, Wang will also be bringing in a Japanese designer to create a clean, minimalist design for the restaurant, which Wang says will be “like a work of art”. At the moment, the restaurant is expected to operate daily from 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM, seven days a week. According to Otta’s website, the new restaurant is slated to open in late summer/early fall 2022, and you can visit their website to check out Olivia’s other two concepts.
