Minetta Tavern

MacDougal Street, NYC

Jan 27, 2024

I don't have a drinking problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink.

Tom Waits

Tom Waits would have a problem with Minetta Tavern. Getting a drink there can be tough, but only because it’s a place where everyone wants one. And if Minetta Tavern was a singer/songwriter, it would be Tom Waits - gravel-voiced and marinated in dark liquor.

It’s built on the patronage of my kind of people: layabouts, hangers-on, and pugilists:

Minetta’s bustles. It’s crowded and convivial, attracting neighborhood layabouts (known by name to the staff and subtly whisked past the always-long waiting list to the next open bar seat), food tourists seeking the fabled Black Label Burger, and expense account types celebrating a loan extension.

Minetta’s has a personality that can only be acquired over time - like the well-worn edge of its story-filled bar (created by a century of elbows):

Minetta’s is perfect imperfection, classy but not fussy, and with a delightful lack of brand standards, at least as far as the signs are concerned.

Neon, window, terrazzo, paper - all with different typography

The tin ceiling amplifies both the laughter and the clinking glasses.

White-aproned staff, frescos, dark beadboard walls, plaster egg and dart crown moulding, caricatures with cigarettes, a noted lack of LED lighting, and an analog clipboard waiting list:

Leaded glass doors protect the good whiskey:

Minetta’s has been around for almost 100 years but it wasn’t until Keith McNally’s 2009 revamp that it reached full self-actualization. It’s everything a restaurant should be - for my taste, anyway - an effortless purveyor of superb food and drink, vivid, and of its place. Minetta’s is not just of New York City, or of Greenwich Village, it is of MacDougal Street - Minetta’s existence is intertwined with its surroundings. Neither would be the same without the other.

MacDougal Street birthed Minetta’s and left a powerful genetic marker. But that doesn’t mean it ends there. No - handled with respect, Minetta’s cord blood can be transplanted elsewhere.

And that’s exactly what my pal Jess Bruner did - through some deft salesmanship (and showmanship) she convinced Mr. McNally that the Union Market redevelopment in Washington DC was a worthy home for a second Minetta’s.

Union Market opened in 1931 as a collection of food warehouses. That it is a few years Minetta’s senior wasn’t lost on Mr. McNally; its grit and history checked the necessary boxes. A near century’s-worth patina remains despite the ongoing polishing by the current property owner, Edens.

Making a deal with an iconic American restaurant isn’t easy, fast, or cheap. It requires an owner with fortitude, the vision to see the transformational halo effects, and enough surrounding property to make the exercise worthwhile.

Union Market is a worthy location and its owner is a wonderful steward. My bet is - with time - Minetta’s becomes also of Union Market, and they’ll both be better for it.

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