New Restaurant Estela Breuer to Open at The Met Breuer in Summer 2016
(New York, December 15, 2015)—The Met has announced that it will collaborate with restaurateur Thomas Carter and chef Ignacio Mattos of the acclaimed Manhattan restaurant Estela to launch a new restaurant in The Met Breuer next summer. Overseen by the critically-acclaimed team,
Estela Breuer will provide a distinctively modern culinary experience that responds to the contemporary context of The Met Breuer and its iconic Marcel Breuer-designed building. The Met Breuer is set to become the new home for The Met’s expanding modern and contemporary program when it opens to the public on March 18, 2016.
Starting in summer 2016, Estela Breuer will offer a menu that reflects the cooking Mattos has become known for—straightforward but carefully conceived food, ranging from contemporary interpretations of traditional fare to inventive new dishes, meant for sharing. The restaurant will include a coffee bar that will be open during Museum hours, serving food and beverages to visitors in a casual environment. Like the restaurant, the coffee bar will present a unique culinary aesthetic in dialogue with the setting of The Met Breuer.
“Thomas and Ignacio’s reputation as two of New York’s most distinguished restaurateurs rests on their boldly inventive approach to classic cuisines, a sensibility that will harmonize perfectly with the spirit of contemporary innovation that defines The Met Breuer experience,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “We are delighted to partner with two of the most innovative culinary artists as we prepare to open an ambitious new chapter in the history of The Met’s modern and contemporary program.”
Details on the menu for Estela Breuer will be announced this spring. Prior to the restaurant’s opening, The Met will offer a pop-up coffee shop with food and beverage service for visitors to The Met Breuer.
About Estela
In 2013, Thomas Carter and Ignacio Mattos opened Estela on Houston Street in the space that once housed the Knitting Factory music venue. With an expansive wine list and a bar serving cocktails late into every evening, Estela is a place that takes inspiration from the lively, dependable restaurants that Carter and Mattos love to visit around the world but that is also firmly rooted in downtown New York City. The same ethos will inform Estela Breuer, where the pair are bringing a new restaurant that responds to its location within the iconic Met Breuer building. In early 2016, they will open their second restaurant on Spring Street in SoHo called Café Altro Paradiso.
Thomas Carter, Co-Owner and Wine Director
Before opening Estela, Thomas was beverage director at the award-winning Blue Hill at Stone Barns for six years. He previously worked in wine service for Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, and as a cook at New York restaurants including Le Bernardin, Mercer Kitchen, and Union Pacific. He has degrees from Columbia College Chicago and the Culinary Institute of America. Thomas and Ignacio found each other through a truffle guy.
Ignacio Mattos, Co-Owner and Chef
Born in Uruguay, he began his career in the kitchens of Francis Mallmann, Judy Rodgers, and Alice Waters. He moved to New York City in 2006 to become chef of the NoHo institution Il Buco. In 2011, he left that restaurant to serve as opening chef of Isa, in Williamsburg, where his adventurous cooking earned the establishment a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant in America.
In 2012, he met his collaborator and partner at Estela, Thomas Carter. At their restaurant, Ignacio tries to cook food that's comforting and bold, reflecting his varied experiences and the cultures of the city he calls home. As New York Times critic Pete Wells put it, his "dishes are original and, in their way, simple, and it’s that combination that makes you want to give in to them." Since its opening, Estela has made best-of lists in a wide range of local and national publications, and Ignacio was nominated for a James Beard Best Chef: New York award in 2014.
About The Met Breuer
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s modern and contemporary art program is expanding to include a new series of exhibitions, performances, artist commissions, residencies, and educational initiatives in the building designed by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue and 75th Street. Opening to the public on March 18, 2016, The Met Breuer provides additional space to explore the art of the 20th and 21st centuries through the global breadth and historical reach of the Met’s unparalleled collection.
The Met Breuer is featured on the Museum’s website at
www.metmuseum.org/MetBreuer as well as on
Facebook,
Instagram, and
Twitter via the hashtag
#MetBreuer.
About The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City – The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.
Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.
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Contact:
Alexandra Kozlakowski, Communications, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3951, communications@metmuseum.org
Juliet Sorce, Resnicow + Associates, jsorce@resnicow.com, 212-671-5158
Sue Chan, Public Relations, Thomas Carter and Ignacio Mattos, info@estelanyc.com
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Updated March 1, 2016
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