Artfarm’s Manuela Restaurant Debuts Artist Interventions in New York’s SoHo
The international hospitality group Artfarm has opened the doors to its first East Coast project on the corner of Wooster and Prince Street in the heart of the SoHo historic cast iron district
Manuela is a welcoming neighborhood restaurant and bar where great contemporary art and food combine to create a convivial atmosphere and sense of abundance. The restaurant is named for Manuela Wirth, who co-founded Artfarm with her husband Iwan Wirth. And like its sister restaurant in the Downtown Arts District of LA, Manuela in SoHo takes its cues from its namesake’s legendary hospitality, culinary talents and famous warmth as a hostess whose passion for freshly prepared cuisine, local culture and community are complemented by the guiding conviction that art and life are indivisible. Hewing to the belief that great food and delicious, nourishing meals are not luxuries but essentials to be generously shared.
Manuela is a restaurant with powerful but simple principles at its heart. Artfarm was created over a decade ago when the Wirths were restoring and expanding their own family farm in Somerset, England, and accumulating extensive knowledge of cultivation and community. Learning from the local farmers and experts with whom they worked, expanded their respect for enlightened approaches to the land, animals, plants and people – lessons that resonated with the wisdom they had inherited from their own grandparents in rural Switzerland. This rigorous commitment to regenerative agriculture, local purveyors and craftspeople is central to Artfarm and has led to collaborations for Manuela with exceptional growers, farmers and makers from the Tri-State area and New England. Dayboats from Maine and Montauk provide the restaurant’s seafood. Meats and fowl come from ethical farms in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Fruit and vegetables are carefully selected from local farmer’s markets.
The menu at Manuela both responds to and celebrates American seasons with freshly prepared dishes cooked in an open kitchen over the wood fired grill or in the charcoal oven. Half of the menu at Manuela is plant focused, with dishes that are honest, unpretentious and served with joy. Among the offerings are roasted turnips with royal corona beans and grilled brassicas, spiced monkfish skewer with lovage and guindilla peppers, rattlesnake beans with tomato vinaigrette and pecorino and Concord grape sorbet with olive oil drizzle.
Committed to sustainability in all its forms, Manuela is also proud to be the only restaurant in Manhattan with an in-house composter. Guests will be able to visit the kitchen to view ‘The Rocket,’ which uses nature’s own processes to break down and convert daily food waste into a valuable nutrient-rich resource. The resulting compost will then be used by Project EATS, a pathbreaking New York City-based non-profit organization founded by artist Linda Goode Bryant, to enrich its six urban gardens across the city’s five boroughs.
This innovative partnership with Project EATS is also celebrated through a dedicated window installation on Prince Street where, inspired by the spirit of the area and its role in the lives of generations of artists and creatives, Linda will tell Soho’s history in four chapters over the coming months. Additionally, every check at Manuela gives the option to donate a $1 contribution to Project EATS, completing a circle of community support and engagement.
Mika Rottenberg’s bar forms the epicenter of Manuela. This whimsical construction, illuminated by lights that beam though mushroom-like colored orbs, is made from completely recycled disregarded plastic that the artist has combined with harvested and carved invasive bittersweet vines which choke forests in Upstate New York and need culling. Mary Heilmann’s colorful embedded ceramic tabletops can be found in both the bar and dining areas, while the private dining room showcases an ebulliently decorated 23 foot long, 24-seat dining table and brilliant red custom rug designed by Rashid Johnson. Murals by Rita Ackermann, Lorna Simpson, Pat Steir and Uman define key spaces of the interiors. Louise Bourgeois’ fantastical bronze Spider II (1995) and new and recent paintings and works on paper by artists who have lived, worked or been inspired by SoHo are also on view, including contributions by George Condo, Gordon Matta Clark, Philip Guston, Nicolas Party and Cindy Sherman, among others.
Manuela’s design was led by Russell Sage Studios, who were also responsible for The Fife Arms and Fish Shop Ballater, two critically acclaimed Artfarm projects in Scotland.
The interiors of the restaurant have been crafted with high eco-credentials across finishes, furniture and lighting. Timber and concrete throughout the project are original, stripped back and lightly re-sealed with non-toxic sealant, while plaster walls are made from unfired-natural clays and minerals to provide a breathable finish. All lighting and textiles, including leathers, are either vintage, recycled or off cuts.
Manuela will open for dinner Monday – Sunday at 130 Prince Street, SoHo.
Brunch is available from 9 November on Saturday and Sunday and from 11 November lunch Monday – Friday.
Walk-ins also encouraged.
Reservations can be made online at manuela-nyc.com and via Resy.
