Best NYC Restaurants for Spotting Celebrities

By Mickey Rapkin, Bon Appétit

When a hot new restaurant opens in New York, it's a safe bet that Jay-Z and Beyoncé are not far behind. Keeping that kind of wattage coming back is the real trick. Here, 10 restaurants for (celebrity) people watching.

The Spotted Pig (Photograph courtesy The Spotted Pig) The Spotted Pig
Chef April Bloomfield has made this gastropub a go-to for late-night meaty indulgence. Bloomfield is by all accounts what you call a stickler, disallowing chili-pepper pants in the kitchen and mayonnaise on the burgers; reportedly Lou Reed alone is permitted to have onions on his, and only because an errant server set a precedent. The second floor here is like Madame Tussauds, where you might see investors Jay-Z, Michael Stipe, or Fatboy Slim . . . or Courtney Love, whom owner Ken Friedman, a former music-biz exec, once famously allowed to raid Bloomfield's pantry. 314 West 11th Street, 212-620-0393

Read More: Celebrity Culinary Secrets

Locanda Verde
Andrew Carmellini's Italian tavern opened in 2009, in the Tribeca space that formerly housed De Niro's ill-fated Ago. De Niro, who also co-owns Locanda Verde, couldn't reel 'em in on star power alone, but Carmellini--the original chef de cuisine at Café Boulud--has proved that If you build the perfect lamb meatball slider, they will come. And that sometimes "they" will be Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler, and neighbor Meryl Streep. 377 Greenwich Street, 212-925-3797

ABC Kitchen
It's locavores gone wild at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Beard Award-winning restaurant at ABC Carpet & Home--a farm-to-table spot that sometimes feels more like celebrity-to-trough. In happier times, Katy Perry and Russell Brand dined here. Kanye's been. And in March, President Obama joined the likes of Russell Simmons and Deepak Chopra here for a $35,800-a-plate fund-raiser. 35 East 18th Street, 212-475-5829

Spice Market (Photograph courtesy Spice Market) Spice Market
Southeast Asian nibbles courtesy of Jean-Georges; flashbulbs courtesy of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who chose this meatpacking outpost for an attention-grabbing dinner with her family back in April. Other recent notables: Hugh Jackman, Christina Aguilera, and (Jill Zarin from The Real Housewives of New York, who, as we all know, runs with a fabulous circle of people). 403 West 13th Street, 212-675-2322

Bar Pitti
This downtown Italian spot is known for its outdoor seating and beautiful-people watching. Construction, with some unfortunately placed scaffolding, has been something of a buzzkill this summer, but the models still abound. Heidi Klum is a fan; ditto Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Ron Perelman, Donna Karan, and Gerard Butler. If there's no one here, look next door at Da Silvano for the likes of Anna Wintour, Mayor Bloomberg, and Jack Nicholson. 268 Sixth Avenue, 212-982-3300

Acme
The long-standing Cajun dive of the same name was reborn in late 2011 as a Nordic bistro helmed by Mads Refslund, a founder of Copenhagen's Noma. With specialties that include "duck in a jar" and black heirloom carrots with pine, lardo, and blood orange, the new Acme has attracted highbrow patrons like Chuck Close and Salman Rushdie (spotted by the New York Post huddled with a "mystery babe" during Fashion Week). 9 Great Jones Street, 212-203-2121

The Dutch (Photograph by Noah Felks) The Dutch
The bar is loud. The lighting is dim. The giant, head-on Hawaiian shrimp are succulent, and the rabbit pot pie is as rich as Warren Buffett. And late at night, on this once-quiet Soho corner, Derek Jeter and Minka Kelly have been known to sup near the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Jude Law. But if no one's on display the night you're there, who cares? We've never had a bad meal that started with chipotle cornbread. 131 Sullivan Street, 212-677-6200

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The Waverly Inn
After Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter opened this spot in the ground floor of a West Village townhouse in 2006, it rapidly earned notice for its buttery biscuits and absurd star wattage. It even (very briefly) had its own coy, self-promoting blog on the VF website: "A recent Tuesday evening found the Waverly verily chockablock: a pair of rock legends in one of the main room's two horseshoe-shaped banquettes, an investment legend holding court in the other. Elsewhere: a former police commissioner, a sprinkling of talent agents, a fleet of fashionistas. (They do actually eat, you know.)" It remains a kind of neo-Elaine's for the downtown set, attracting notables from Fran Lebowitz to Lindsay Lohan. 16 Bank Street, 917-828-1154

Marlow & Sons
No culinary tour of Williamsburg would be complete without a stop at Marlow & Sons, a whimsical hipster bodega with a wood-paneled oyster bar and killer craft cocktails. Yeah, it's impossible to get a cab back into Manhattan at the end of the night. But Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren--both recent diners--don't take taxis. Brooklyn is dead; long live Brooklyn. 81 Broadway, Williamsburg, 718-384-1441

Super Linda
From the outside, Super Linda still looks a bit like the Greek diner that was perched on the corner of West Broadway and Reade Street for all those years--almost an eyesore in an otherwise hip Tribeca. Thankfully, the interior got the high-end once over along with the kitchen; Matt Abramcyk's Latin American cantina feels like a Buenos Aires escape, what with its burlap sack upholstery, wooden blinds and gorgeous women packed three deep. It's exactly what you'd expect from the Beatrice Inn vet and his partners, Serge Becker (La Esquina, Miss Lily's) and Richard Ampudia (Cafe Habana). And it packs in a glam crowd for Baja fish tacos and in-house ceviches. By glam crowd, of course, we mean recent guests like Michelle Williams, Jay-Z, Cee Lo Green and Nick Jonas. 109 West Broadway, 212-227-8998


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