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Clemente Bar

Christine Drinan, Founder

When Eleven Madison Park went vegan almost three years ago, it created a frenzy with a longer waitlist each evening than Polo Bar. While since then EMP has settled into their groove and retained their 3-Michelin star rating, they’re not resting on their laurels. Eleven Madison Park forges ahead in their initiative to more sustainable food practices with the launch of Clemente Bar. Like its older sister, Clemente Bar continues the vegan trend. But how does it translate to a drinks spot? This is the first look review of Eleven Madison Park’s new cocktail bar.

Atmosphere

The check in for Clemente Bar is at Eleven Madison Park, so it’s Michelin-vibes without being overly formal. I would characterize the atmosphere as modern-Michelin, where in lieu of a hushed dining room there’s a good volume of conversation that is part of the food experience. Both the restaurant and the downstairs bar were completely full, as was the upstairs where Clemente Bar sits.

In lieu of a private dining room, it was a brilliant move to convert the upstairs to a cocktail bar. The space doesn’t necessarily naturally flow to get to the upstairs lounge. However once you get past the host stand at the top of the landing and make your way down the corridor to the bar, Clemente Bar has its own distinct character. Clearly everyone’s buying into what EMP’s shipping, because not many could create the demand there is for Clemente as a vegan bar.

I read that Clemente was inspired by one of my favorites in Zurich, a restaurant/traditional Swiss tavern restaurant called Kronenhalle. I could see some resemblance, but I wouldn’t have guessed the inspiration without the pre-research. Regardless, with or without knowing this, I loved the murals that dominate the decor of Clemente Bar. Clemente’s name comes from the artist Francesco Clemente, who created the artwork and murals of the bar. The space is dimly lit with intimate tables and rich dark wood and velvet throughout. It’s the kind of place you could come on a date, with friends for bites, or a lighter-side dinner. This isn’t a place where there are tier-two models running around but the crowd is attractive and interesting enough to people-watch.

Food + Beverage

We took an early 5:45pm reservation as I planned to drop by another restaurant for a proper dinner afterwards. Although I’ve been on plant-based diets before, I didn’t think after the perusing the menu my friend and I would be properly fed at Clemente Bar. I was pleasantly surprised to be  proven wrong. The menu for a lounge table isn’t large but you could easily make a meal that hits the spot. We ordered six of the nine savory dishes on the menu, and would come back to order five of them again.

The star of the menu was the Tonburi, which was a dark horse surprise. I didn’t know what Tonburi was, and carrot, horseradish and tortillas didn’t sound that compelling. However our server’s eyes lit up describing the Tonburi, which is a rendition of vegan caviar. Tonburi is from the Japanese Cyprus tree, which Clemente works their alchemy on to hydrate, rehydrate and probably perform more acrobatics than I could ever understand. The result is black pearls that resemble caviar, and sort of taste like it too. You scoop up the Tonburi on fresh corn chip rounds with the carrot. This creation will go down as one of the more unique dishes of my 2024.

You Can Never Have Enough Truffle

The other surprise was the black truffle tart flambé which was cracker thin, crispy and loaded with shaved black truffle. The tart was finished with just a touch of black truffle olive oil. It was like having pizza without too much of a carb load and pizza belly afterwards. We moved onto the Agedashi fried tofu hot dog with more black truffle and the thrice fried potato. The idea of a tofu hot dog was not appealing to me, but once again we took the advice of our server, and he did not steer us wrong. The brioche bun was buttery and perfectly griddled brown, and tofu lightly fried. And no, it was not too heavy on the black truffle having just taken down the tart.

The thrice fried potato was like a mashed potato that was fried up with a crispy crust on the outside, which added the sustenance to make our selections a meal. It was served with a mayo, which I’m normally not a fan of. However Clemente Bar’s version didn’t offend me at all. The only dish that I wasn’t crazy about was the avocado inari pocket, which was exactly what you’d expect. That was mainly my issue with it; I wasn’t wowed or surprised by the fried tofu skin, rice filling or avocado. It wasn’t bad, but I would order more pickles next time and the burger, along with all the other dishes we tried. The point is on the food, I would return here again.

Now, Cocktails

The cocktail list itself is curated, in lieu of throwing an encyclopedia of drinks at you, which I appreciated. The menu is divided into seven sections which describe exactly what the cocktail sets to achieve. There’s fresh, carbonated, whipped, low ABV, clarified, bold and zero proof. I had the 5th Leaf, which was part of the “fresh” section of the menu. It delivered exactly that; a fresh, not sweet, smoky Pisco-based drink. I opted for red wine post which was a bit uneventful. In hindsight I probably should have tried another cocktail.

Service

As you would expect from a place like EMP, the service was flawless, from start to finish. I like that EMP in general achieves a polished yet not stuffy or overly orchestrated service vibe. At Clemente Bar it’s like a continuation of the service downstairs, where I forgot how nice it was to have dedicated food industry servers. Like of course it’s cool at other spots where your server is an aspiring actor or does tattoos on the side. However the team at Clemente is in it for the passion of the food and beverage, which elevated our experience. We had four different team members who took care of our table, but yet it all felt coordinated. The servers known their stuff and prove that you can get excited about vegan food. We got our best recommendations from the team for food and beverage.

Overall: 8/10

I would come back in a heartbeat for the $400 bar bites and cocktails. It was worth it to get a piece of the EMP experience at Clemente Bar if you’re looking for an elevated night out.

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FAQs

Q: Where is Clemente Bar located?

A: Clemente Bar is located at 11 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10010.

Q: What are the hours of operation of Clemente Bar?

A: The hours of operation of Clemente Bar are as follows:

Friday 5 PM–1 AM
Saturday 5 PM–1 AM
Sunday 5 PM–1 AM
Monday 5 PM–1 AM
Tuesday 5 PM–1 AM
Wednesday 5 PM–1 AM
Thursday 5 PM–1 AM

Q: Does Clemente Bar serve food?

A:  Yes, Clemente Bar serves food. Like its sister restaurant Eleven Madison Park, they focus on vegan cuisine.

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