The River Café

Profile

The views at this historic waterfront restaurant — propped up by a submerged pier — are breathtaking enough to produce a blasé-busting, hyperventilating rush of civic pride. The city is surprisingly short on such restaurants, and the River Café’s ability to attract out-of-towners like moths to a lamp have given it a reputation as a tourist trap. But over the years owner Michael “Buzzy” O’Keeffe hired some of America’s most influential chefs to run the kitchen, including Larry Forgione (once called “the godfather of American cuisine”), Charlie Palmer, and David Burke. From its earliest days, it focused on American ingredients and wines, casual service, and a more inclusive approach to fine dining. The restaurant’s greatest asset, its location, is also its Achilles’ heel, and when Hurricane Sandy smacked into the city in 2012, the Café was flooded knee-deep and closed for 14 months. Its reopening was celebrated, but the restaurant isn’t necessarily in conversations among the culinary cognoscenti these days. Still, it hasn’t wavered in its mission to focus on American ingredients. Dining on the comfortably lounge-lit floating barge, simply decorated to defer to the obvious visual splendor, with a pianist who cannily plinks instead of plunders, is like living in a Woody Allen movie — one of the wonderful ones, with all the Gershwin, and the specter of looming lechery replaced by the possibility of a happy ending.

Prix fixe, $125; Six-course tasting menu, $155; Brunch, $55

Weddings
Couples who book this local institution will enjoy the bohemian romance of old Brooklyn without sacrificing a glorious city backdrop. The Terrace Room is festooned in abundant greenery, boasts a water-stream entrance, and opens up to an expansive view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan’s skyline. The intimate room can hold 100 guests (80 with a dance floor). From $225 per guest.

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Hal Rubenstein's Full Review (9/22/03)

Featured In

• 40th Anniversary: Gael Greene Picks the City's Most Important Restaurants (10/6/08)