The Nymphs Are Waiting, Café des Artistes Comes Back
Ariel Arce is bringing Café des Artistes back to West 67th Street, and she wants your memories first
The murals never left. Howard Chandler Christy started painting his wood nymphs on the walls of 1 West 67th Street in 1934, and they have watched over two restaurants since. The first was Café des Artistes. The second was the Leopard at des Artistes, which served its last meal in February. A third is on the way, and it turns out to be Café des Artistes again.
This week Eater reported that Ariel Arce and her business partner Max Katzenberg will bring the old name back to life in early 2027. Their company, AirMax Hospitality, says the board of the Hotel des Artistes picked it after a search for a new operator. Before a single plate goes out, they are asking the city for something. An ad set to run in the New York Times on Sunday, September 27, invites old diners, former staff, neighbors, and anyone with a story about the room to send it in. Photos, mementos, and memories can also go to memories@cafedesartistesnyc.com. The team says the answers will help shape the new restaurant.
It is an unusual way to open. It is also a very Arce way to open.
A Hell's Kitchen Kid Uptown
Arce grew up in Hell's Kitchen, not far from West 67th Street. According to Eater, she celebrated her graduation from LaGuardia High School at Café des Artistes. Katzenberg was born a few blocks from the restaurant. The two have been partners since 2023.
Her story downtown is better known. Arce built her name on rooms where the drinks and the music matter as much as the food. Tokyo Record Bar, the vinyl listening bar she opened in 2017, is one of them. Air's Champagne Parlor, which she opened at 28 and which has since closed, was another. With Katzenberg she now runs Tokyo Record Bar, Roscioli NYC, and Pearl Box in Lower Manhattan, along with Leonessa and Big Pearl Caviar. Katzenberg previously ran Olmsted and Maison Yaki in Brooklyn, according to I Love the Upper West Side. Her speaker biography for the Travel + Leisure World's Best Summit says she first trained as a professional actor, and it credits that background for the theatrical streak in her rooms.
She still lives in Hell's Kitchen. In a recent InsideHook interview she named the drag shows at Hardware Bar, in her own neighborhood, as a favorite, along with morning coffee from Culture and walks down Ninth Avenue with her dog. Asked where she likes to sit when she eats out, she finished with a warning.
A seat that seems to be thoughtlessly added last minute to maximize the restaurant capacity must be avoided at all costs.
She told InsideHook that line, and it reads like a promise for West 67th Street. The same interview held a small surprise from a woman who runs late night bars. Her favorite time of day, she said, is morning, "even though you would expect me to say nights."
The Room That Came Before
Café des Artistes opened in 1917 on the ground floor of the Hotel des Artistes, a building made for working artists. Many of the apartments had no kitchens, so the dining room downstairs began as a place for residents to eat. Eventually the room drew outsiders too, especially the performers, musicians, and writers who came for Lincoln Center down the street.
Its most famous era began in 1975, when George Lang, the Hungarian born restaurateur, and his wife Jenifer took it over. Eater lists the signature dishes of that era. Salmon four ways. Pot au feu. Tarte à l'oignon. The café closed in 2009 after more than ninety years at the same address.
The Leopard at des Artistes followed in 2011, run by Gianfranco Sorrentino and Paula Bolla-Sorrentino, the couple behind Il Gattopardo in Midtown. West Side Rag reported the closing in early February, quoting a short goodbye on the restaurant's Instagram and a final service on February 15. The Rag's report gave no reason. The murals stayed put through all of it.
For anyone who has read our piece on the painters behind murals after midnight, there is something moving about artwork that outlasts every menu hung beneath it. Christy lived in the building. His nymphs have now seen more than ninety years of lunches, first dates, anniversaries, and last calls.
What Comes Next
The plan so far is specific in some places and open in others. In June, Katzenberg walked the project through a Community Board 7 committee while Arce was traveling in Greece, according to I Love the Upper West Side. At that stage the company was filed as Air Cafe LLC and the concept was described as French American fine dining. The committee backed the liquor license application unanimously on June 10, with the full board still to weigh in.
The hours described then were civilized rather than wild. Lunch every day starting at noon. No breakfast and no late night service. A last seating at 10:30 p.m., with the dining room cleared by midnight. Katzenberg told the committee that the renovation would be purely cosmetic and that he would love to track down older murals removed from the room decades ago and bring them back. Seven seats outside, weather permitting.
What nobody knows yet is who will cook. A chef has not been announced. That leaves room for the memories the ad is fishing for. Someone out there remembers what the salmon four ways actually tasted like. Someone remembers the booth, the waiter, the night.
It is a smart move and a generous one. Arce made her reputation downtown by building rooms that feel like private discoveries. Uptown, she has inherited a room that thousands of New Yorkers already feel they own. Asking them what it meant is a way of admitting that before the restaurant belongs to AirMax Hospitality, it belongs to them.
Before the restaurant belongs to AirMax Hospitality, it belongs to them.
Opening is set for early 2027. Until then the nymphs keep their pose on West 67th Street, lit or unlit, waiting for the next crowd to walk in from Central Park West after the curtain comes down.
