Ace Hotel and the team behind Grand Banks, New York City’s beloved seafood bar and restaurant aboard a historic schooner, are partnering to open Seaworthy, an American oyster bar located next door to Ace Hotel New Orleans at 630 Carondelet Street.
Seaworthy sets sail on August 1. The menu will feature sustainably sourced seafood with a particular focus on the breadth of bivalves from the Gulf Coast, East Coast, and West Coast. The seafood hearty offerings will be complemented by an array of handcrafted cocktails.
Brothers Alex and Miles Pincus are native New Orleanians who learned to sail on the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Along with their Grand Banks partner and nightlife veteran Adrien Gallo, the trio have brought on board award-winning Chef Kerry Heffernan and beverage director Lauren Schell both from the team at Grand Banks to help build Seaworthy in conjunction with Ace Hotel.
Seaworthy draws inspiration from the Pincus brothers’ sailing trips along the Gulf Coast waterways, the timeworn traditions of Southern hospitality and the legendary exuberance of the city of New Orleans. The restaurant and its menu encourage the time-honored tradition of the unhurried enjoyment of friends and family.
Executive Chef Heffernan and chef de cuisine Daniel Causgrove helm the kitchen. In addition to a wide selection of oysters and raw bar items from each of the nation’s coasts, the menu offers signature plates such as the Ceviche of gulf fish with lime, habanero chilies, sweet peppers and grit crisps; the Pork Belly with grilled Alabama peaches, ricotta and pickled onion scapes; the butter poached Sheepshead with red chili-spiced sauce Nantua, crawfish tails and braised alliums; and of course, the critically acclaimed Grand Banks lobster roll made with fresh Maine lobster dressed with a herb, fennel, lemon and a dulse emulsion served with short-pickled cucumber and French fries.
The cocktail list includes well-built classics such as a Daiquiri, Sidecar, Negroni, and the New Orleans Buck. Newly created "au courant" cocktails include the Holywater, a refreshing blend of spiced rum, Cognac, house-made almond syrup, grapefruit, lemon, lime and Angostura bitters, served with a flaming sugar cube floating in green Chartreuse; and the McKittrick Old Fashioned comprised of chocolate bitters, Pedro Ximénez Sherry and bourbon. Along with craft beer, wine, teas and sodas, the "Session" cocktails round out the drink menu. These low-alcohol sippers include the Goldfinch made with Cocchi Americano, Fino Sherry, lemon juice, orange bitters and club soda.
Seaworthy makes its home in a classic Creole cottage built in 1832—one of the last of its kind. Brooklyn's award-winning Home Studios worked in tandem with Atelier Ace's design team and Grand Banks’ partner and award-winning architect Alex Pincus to dress up the bare walls like a sailor’s clubhouse to build an environment that reflects the constraints of a waterborne vessel with the furnishings appropriate to a life spent at sea. Every object is imbued with intent, as is the Seaworthy menu, inflecting the space with the story of a noble vessel.
