Prolific restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten has hit a new high with this dazzling dining room in the Tin Building. With the Howard Hughes organization and the design team of Roman and Williams, Mr. Vongerichten, 65, polished this once-derelict building in the former Fulton Fish Market area. The 53,000-square-foot area is home to market stalls, six full-service restaurants, casual cafes, bars and ample seating, at a cost of nearly $200 million. “I could have made this all French, but this is New York,” he said. You’ll find laksa noodles alongside packaged stock for pho and Indian dosas that share a booth with sweet and savory pancakes. A coffee and pastry area sells some of the 21 different breads made on site; Double Yolk serves egg sandwiches and caviar in the morning after 5pm. The Central Market – with seafood, cold cuts, cheeses, cured meats, pasta and produce from local farmers – is surrounded by a flower shop; a wine bar; candy store; Fulton Fish Co.; an oyster bar; Shikku, a sushi bar that also sells sushi to-go; and T. Brasserie.
Upstairs is a cocktail bar; the vegetable Seeds & Weeds; Beer here! for draft beers and sausages; the House of Red Pearl, an upscale Chinese restaurant; an Italian restaurant with the cheeky name Frenchman’s Dough; Taquito, which serves Mexican food; and shops, several with goods bearing the Jean-Georges Vongerichten Tin Building label. More than 300 employees man the kitchens, but twice as many are needed to open full-time.
Tin Building by Jean-Georges, tentative opening hours, Thursday through Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m. (breakfast from 9 a.m.), 96 South Street at Pier 17 (Beekman Street), tinbuilding.com.
