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Extraordinary Museum Restaurants

Avant-garde menus, star chefs, world-class views: These restaurants give the fine art in the hallowed halls that surround them a bit of healthy -- and delicious -- competition for attention.
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Once considered more of a refueling pit stop between exhibits than an actual culinary destination, museum restaurants have finally arrived. With more establishments utilizing fresh local ingredients and offering housemade and innovative menu items, it should come as no surprise that foodies are flocking to savor something other than art or history.

At Nerua, inside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, chef Josean Alija is snapping up awards with culinary creations like roast-duck foie gras with candied carrots and whipped casein with strawberry-and-violet ice cream. In New York, the New-York Historical Society's Caffè Storico prides itself on house-made Italian delicacies such as arancini risotto and garganelli and pappardelle pastas, as well as views of Central Park through its floor-to-ceiling windows. And locavores should seek out the Art Institute of Chicago's Mediterranean-inspired Terzo Piano, where ingredients are sourced from farms and distilleries within 150 miles of the restaurant.

Each of the restaurants on our list is a powerhouse--avant-garde menus, star chefs and world-class views are par for the course--but most important, the balance has shifted. They give the fine art in the hallowed halls that surround them a bit of healthy--and delicious--competition for attention.

--Erin Schumaker

See More on Departures:

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Extraordinary Museum Restaurants
Café d’Art, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo(01 of09)
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Once described as an oasis in the concrete jungle of Tokyo, Café d’Art at the Hara Museum is a must for anyone with a sweet tooth. Pastry chefs whip up original cakes to match the theme of each exhibit, like the dessert pictured here, designed for a show on the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle (through June 30). The restaurant, which opened in 1985 and overlooks the museum’s sculpture garden, is a lovely spot to sip Champagne while enjoying one of the oldest contemporary art museums in Japan. 4-7-25 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku; 81-3/5423-1609; haramuseum.or.jp.
Caffè Storico, New-York Historical Society(02 of09)
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Overlooking Central Park and bathed in warm, contemporary design elements like white-marble tables and butter-yellow banquettes, Caffè Storico, New-York Historical Society’s hidden gem, is anything but stuffy. The 74-seat Upper West Side restaurant offers up cicchetti (inspired by the small snacks served at local bars in Venice), as well as housemade Northern Italian fare, such as arancini risotto, hand-rolled garganelli pasta and pappardelle with duck ragù and shaved chocolate. Led by Philadelphia-born chef Jim Burke, a James Beard–award nominee and Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef in 2008, dinner prepared at Caffè Storico promises a break from the ordinary. 170 Central Park W.; 212-485-9211; nyhistory.org.
Frank Restaurant, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto(03 of09)
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In 2008, Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) welcomed the addition of Frank Restaurant during a museum redesign by famed architect Frank Gehry. The eponymous eatery, headed by chef du cuisine Jay Tanuwidjaja, features an internationally inspired menu with options like grilled-beef-medallion fiorentina with olive relish and garlic crostini (in conjunction with the museum’s “Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art,” on display through June 16), as well as creative takes on classic global comfort food. The casual, modern space also showcases artwork by American abstract painter Frank Stella and holds exclusive wine-tasting events every month. 317 Dundas St. W.; 416-979-6688; ago.net.
Gather by D’Amico, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis(04 of09)
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Thursday is a big day in Minneapolis. Each month, Gather by D’Amico restaurant at the Walker Art Center hosts a chef-in-residence series, where the selected guest chef adds two small-plate items to the menu to be featured on Thursdays for the rest of the month. On the first Thursday, visitors have a chance to meet the chefs themselves (upcoming guests include Daniel del Prado and Dennis Leaf-Smith) and sample the limited-edition dishes. Beyond the guest-chef menu there's an open kitchen, a killer version of barbecue short-rib banh mi and views of the Minneapolis skyline from the terrace—all of which make Gather the ideal spot to watch the world go by on a summer evening. Reservations for the chef-in-residence series are highly recommended; 1750 Hennepin Ave.; 612-253-3410; gatherbydamico.com.
Le Georges Restaurant, Centre Pompidou, Paris(05 of09)
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Le Georges Restaurant, a whimsical space designed by French architectural firm Jakob + MacFarlane, sits on the top floor of Centre Pompidou, Paris’s well-known contemporary art museum. Trendy Le Georges combines an oversize pink bar with artsy metallic grottos and an outdoor terrace that boasts some of the best views in all of Paris. The cuisine is French fusion with a bit of Asian flair, including options like spicy bass tartar, grilled-beef filet with béarnaise sauce and lemon-raspberry tart for dessert. 19 Rue Beaubourg; 33-1/4478-4799; centrepompidou.fr.
M. Wells Dinette, MoMA PS1, Queens, New York(06 of09)
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M. Wells Dinette at MoMA PS1, the cafeteria-style café housed in a former public school, may well be the hottest ticket in Queens. Run by husband-and-wife team Hugue Dufour and Sarah Obraitis (formerly the owners of M. Wells, which closed in 2011), the restaurant has a constantly changing menu that has included everything from escargot to bone marrow to blood pudding, with menu details scrawled on a chalkboard hanging from the classroom wall. 22–25 Jackson Ave.; 718-786-1800; momaps1.org.
Nerua, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain(07 of09)
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Josean Alija, who began his culinary career at age 17 and honed his skills under Ferran Adrià at Spain’s closed (but not forgotten) El Bulli restaurant, is no stranger to avant-garde epicurean excellence. Today, Alija is the face of two-year-old Nerua restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, an industrial city in northern Spain known for its Basque culture and, in the culinary world, its reliance on fresh local ingredients. The young chef’s creations have not gone unnoticed by critics, either. Both his roast-duck foie gras with candied carrots and whipped casein with strawberry-and-violet ice cream has garnered the chef awards (most artistic dish and most beautiful dish, respectively). As for the restaurant itself, sleek maple and smooth lacquered surfaces mirror the iconic exterior of the Frank Gehry–designed museum. 2 Avda. Abandoibarra; 34-94/400-0430; nerua.com.
Palettes, Denver Art Museum(08 of09)
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“When I cook, the first and foremost thought in my mind is that each guest needs to be wowed,” says Kevin Taylor, executive chef at the Denver Art Museum’s Palettes restaurant. Unlike many café-style museum eateries, Palettes offers a prix-fixe tasting menu inspired by each major exhibit, usually about three per year. The most recent menu, pegged to a Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit, featured black-bean soup with yellow-tomato pico de gallo and buttermilk-fried chicken with tobacco onion rings, Anasazi beans and cascabel peanut sauce. No hints yet about what the upcoming menu for “Spun: Adventures in Textiles” (opening May 19) will include, but we’re expecting big things. 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy.; 303-534-1455; ktrg.net.
Terzo Piano, Art Institute of Chicago(09 of09)
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On the third floor of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing, with sweeping views of Millennium Park through the floor-to-ceiling windows, sits four-year-old Terzo Piano. Headed by James Beard award-winning chef Tony Mantuano, the Mediterranean-inspired eatery sources the majority of its ingredients from within 150 miles of the restaurant, showcasing the best midwestern produce, meat and spirits available. Mantuano strives to keep dishes simple—like his signature spring salad of pea tendrils, English peas, housemade pancetta, shaved cheese and shallot vinaigrette or hand-made malloreddus pasta with braised rabbit, chile flakes, pine nuts, golden raisins, mint and Parmesan—and the restaurant’s streamlined decor (white-oak floors, translucent-resin tables, full-scale windows) echoes the sentiment. 159 E. Monroe St.; 312-443-8650; terzopianochicago.com.

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