You live for new restaurants, which keep refreshing your mad love for NYC. This fall has not disappointed, as SoHo has come back like a 90s trend for the hottest openings. Manuela officially joins that list.
A Swiss couple best known for their contributions to art becames+ increasingly popular in the hospitality sector. The owners of the globally-renowned art gallery franchise Hauser & Wirth created a spin-off business venture called Artfarm that marries art and destination. Many of the duo’s past projects focused on hotels and restaurants in the U.K. That is, until Manuela (named after Manuela Wirth) opened in Los Angeles in 2016. And soon, the union of modern American cuisine and functional gallery pieces proved successful enough to open a sister location in New York’s SoHo district.
The takeaway: Manuela has made it to New York. You don’t have to squeeze in a Los Angeles reservation the next time you’re on the West Coast. Instead, you can make it a go-to when out-of-town friends visit you. They’ll get a taste of the New York art scene, sustainability practices, and the food, of course.
Manuela Sustainability
Sustainability and art are unequivocally embedded in Manuela’s foundation. The restaurant is so dedicated that it prides itself as the only restaurant in Manhattan to use an in-house composter. They will invite you to the kitchen to see the composter (AKA ‘The Rocket’) do its magic. The compost from prep and meal leftovers won’t go to waste. You can enjoy a gourmet meal at Manuela and know your leftovers have done some good for impoverished communities in the city. The non-profit Project EATS distributes the compost to six community gardens.
Manuela Food & Drink
In the spirit of sustainability, the food and beverages at Manuela are seasonally selected with locally-sourced produce and seafood from dayboats in Montauk and Maine. Half of the menu at Manuela is plant-based, so vegetarian friends — don’t rule this one out. Their suppliers are all sustainably-conscious and use regenerative agriculture to limit waste.
Your meal will be prepared in an open kitchen, because cooking is also an art form. You’ll be able to see the wood-fired grill and charcoal oven at work. They offer a dinner sample menu, and your meal looks something like this: A sharable bite — Smoked albacore dip with dill and Carolina Gold rice cracker; then a starter — Steak tartare with Calabrian chili vinaigrette and garlic toast; and your main — Dayboat scallops with chanterelle mushrooms and preserved lemon. Dessert also comes shareable. But no matter how much you like your date, you love dessert more, especially when it’s a Chocolate mousse mille-feuille with crystallized cocoa nibs and hazelnut praline.
Manuela Art Collection & Restaurant Design
Russell Sage Studios is the designer behind Manuela. Even the restaurant’s interior architectural finishes are eco-friendly pieces of functional art. For example, they stripped the original timber and concrete and resealed it without toxic chemicals. They formed the walls of natural clays, and used repurposed recyclables for lighting and fabric .
One of Manuela’s most striking art installations is “Chandelier for Manuela” (2024). In other words, the installation is a lit-up mushroom bar and chandelier made entirely of NYC street plastic waste, and harvested invasive vines, detrimental to Upstate New York’s trees. If you’re wondering what the purpose of the piece is, artist Mika Rottenberg created it as a cultural conversation-starter and a testament to reclaiming materials deemed wasteful and making use of them.
There is also a private dining area for up to 24 guests and a separate entryway. The enormous table in this space is called the “Broken Men Table” (2024), made by artist Rashid Johnson. Its surface is made of a mosaic of handmade and industrial tiles, spray paint, and mirror shards. Johnson’s work is also in New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the new Delta Terminal at the LaGuardia Airport, and a permanent collection lives in the Museum of Modern Art.
Manuela Location
The restaurant and bar are located on the corner of Wooster and Prince Street, in the center of SoHo.
FAQs
Q: What are Manuela’s hours of operation?
A: Manuela is open from Monday to Thursday, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant is open from 5:00 pm – 10:30 pm, and Sundays from 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm.
Q: Will Manuela have more than just dinner service?
A: You can reserve brunch and lunch service in November. Brunch begins November 9th, while lunch will start November 11th.
Q: Is there any other way I can contribute to local communities through Manuela’s sustainability initiative?
A: Guests can voluntarily contribute an extra $1 to their bill to fund Project EATS for communities with compromised nutrition accessibility.
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