The East 50s have new restaurants up the wazoo. But they never saw anything like Simon Kim’s three-level spectacle, Cote 550, at 550 Madison Avenue. With more feasting and boozing options than a cruise ship, it’s making the biggest splash in Midtown’s since the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree went up in 1931.
The complex is anchored by a new, underground version of Kim’s Korean steakhouse hit Cote, but it’s more lux and less raucous than the original Flatiron location. The ground floor above it hosts three distinct, spirits-themed bars. The mezzanine level is set to house an elegant omakase restaurant from three-Michelin-star chef Masahiro Yoshitake, opening later this year.
Every night, the new spot draws a crush of Ubers, Lyfts, limos and yellow cabs as if it was a Kennedy Airport arrivals terminal. Can this really be Madison Avenue?
Designed by David Rockwell, there’s almost too much going on the new spot’s 15,000 square feet to describe. You enter through the tower’s through-block arcade to throbbing Bar Chimera. It’s not one bar, but three — four if you count an area of communal tables near the door — under a monumental 60-foot-high ceiling.
Bar Chimera, named for the mythical three-headed creature, consists of dedicated to martinis, whiskey and wine. One food menu of crowd-pleasing dishes serves all three. Choices range from a luscious peppercorn mustard-coated cheeseburger of chuck, brisket and short rib ($33) and mini crisp-wrapped Wagyu corndogs ($28) to pricey Petrosssian caviar and a $270 shellfish plateau. The latter seem tailer-made for big spenders from companies upstairs like Chubb and Hermes.
The bar menus are there to support the spirits offerings, which include scores of esoteric and rare choices. From a booth at the foot of Whiskey Bar’s soaring pink granite walls that echo the building’s exterior, I passed up a $1,350 glass of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon for a potent $17 Super Creamsicle, a spring-treat elixir of Hibiki Harmony bourbon, cream soda and orange citrate.
A long flight of stairs leads down to a “Meat Locker” bar suffused in the red glow of the adjoining dry-aging locker where, unlike at the upstairs bars, you can order off the Cote menu.
From there, a spooky, blue-lit hallway leads to a mysterious mirrored door and to Cote itself — “it’s very deep, like Eldorado Found,” Kim enthused.
The room has a tropical feel with comfy booths, a bubbling aquamarine central pond and a jungle of vegetation. It gets noisy but compared with the original Cote’s concrete confines, “It’s a library,” my friend joked.
Cote’s menu builds on the downtown one with what Kim calls “opulent” touches like foie gras. The beef extravaganza called Butcher’s Feast, which is $82 per person on East 22nd Street, is $115 at 550 Madison, where it starts with a cube of prized Otoro tuna. It’s the “A5 Wagyu of the sea,” Kim said, referring to Japan’s highest beef grade.
Wizard-like waiters cook everything on table-top grills. “We don’t encourage customers to do it themselves,” Kim chuckled. “We tried it briefly downtown and the results were not pretty.”
“Bone bone” noodle soup ($42), brimming with thin ribeye slices in Wagyu broth, makes a pricey but worth-it prelude to the feasts, which include a small cup of consomme. Three cuts — USDA Prime Dry-aged ribeye, American wagyu, and USDA prime hanger steak — arrive without marination to show off their natural fat and juices. Their textures are buttery to various degrees, especially the wagyu that all but melts on the tongue.
Last up is USDA prime Galbi (short rib), marinated in a sweet-and-savory Korean marmalade of soy sauce, dashi and orange juice. Its a seductive supernova of mineral, bittersweet and salty notes — umami on steroids.
Cote 550 has been in the works for more than six years. On the prowl for a more ambitious project than the first Cote, Kim experienced a “magic moment” when he first walked into the former Sony Building on Sept 11, 2020 — a date charged with 9/11 memories and a year when COVID-19 cast a pall over Midtown.
It led to lengthy lease negotiations with building owner Olayan America. Kim cited design inspirations he shared with Rockwell from all over the map, including movies “Batman” and “The Goonies,” plazas in Rome and even the Sistine Chapel — “not that I’m Michelangelo,” he joked.
After the New York Post broke the news of Kim’s lease on Jan. 22, 2023, construction moved slowly due to oversight by a half-dozen city agencies.
Now Kim said, “It’s a dream come true.”
