They want to look at Madeline marching in line,” said Harriet Cohen, a divorce attorney in her 80s, who has been visiting the bar regularly for Martinis since the 1950s. They want to hear the American standards. They want to go into the looking glass, and step into the past. They don’t want to go to a bar and have a beer anymore. “This is the TikTok generation, and TikTok is obsessed with nostalgia and experiences.
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“There is also a live pianist that brings the place to life.” Cellphones and selfies now illuminate the 1940s-era bar. She recently posted a selfie on Instagram while drinking a Martini at Bemelmans. “It feels classic,” explained Stephanie Diaconu, 24, who works for Ralph Lauren’s marketing team, of her newfound love for the bar. The bartender was forced to recheck the ID of a 23-year-old woman who looked more like a high-school student. The bar’s famous oversized Martinis sloshed as groups of Zoomers squeezed through the room to take selfies against Bemelmans’ famous illustrations. On a recent Wednesday evening, Bemelmans was packed three-customers deep at the bar. It’s going to hurt the reputation of the hotel.” People pay a lot of money to stay at that hotel, so that they don’t have to deal with riffraff. Gen Z lines up outside Bemelmans Bar to get a taste of a $25 Martini. He estimated the price of a table at a bottle of champagne - noting that he was seated almost instantly after agreeing to order one. “They don’t say it out loud, but there is a minimum for the tables now ,” added Vinnie Cammarata, 47, the owner of Chuck’s Vintage on East 91st.
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“I don’t want to be there with a bunch of 20-year-olds.” “It’s a catch-22: It’s great for their business, but they have to understand that people like me and the older people that used to like going there, won’t go now,” said uptown Dr. Worse still, reservations have been eliminated in favor of an egalitarian first-come, first-served policy. NY Post photo compositeīrioni suits now mix with designer jeans and Balenciaga sneakers behind a velvet rope. The Upper East Side’s Bemelmans Bar is drawing young scenesters such as Stephanie Diaconu (inset right), to the chagrin of old-timers who complains of crowds and long lines. Most notable is the introduction of a bouncer wearing an earpiece who is every bit as gruff and disinterested as you’d find at a downtown fashion fête. Since the pandemic shutdown and its splashy reopening in May, old-time Upper East Siders, who used the piano bar as a surrogate living room, have bristled at the unwelcome changes.
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Now, Gen Zers with money to burn are overwhelming the formerly buttoned-up bar each night. The Carlyle hotel’s Bemelmans Bar - an unchanged 1940s-era lounge known for its masterpiece Martinis, white-glove service and wall illustrations by the author of “Madeline,” Ludwig Bemelmans - is the latest victim of cool. In an old hotel in Manhattan under a marquee sign, stood dozens of 20-somethings in one straight line. New Yorkers toast reopened Bemelmans Bar with martinis and nostalgia Fortune fight: Widow, stepson of former Carlyle Hotel owner battle over $41Mĭowling’s at the Carlyle: This revived old-school haunt has Big Dining EnergyĬarlyle Hotel’s revamped restaurant will delight with Bemelmans’ Madeline murals