(Click on the link above to download this Opening Announcement)

New York, NY - (June 2007)
Just in time to herald the advent of the season, Park Avenue Summer (100 East 63 rd Street at Park Avenue, 212-644-1900) opened its doors on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, bringing to life the seasonal premise of the restaurant in its physical design, cuisine, and beverage program. As all good things must come to an end, in early September, Park Avenue Summer will close its doors and Park Avenue Autumn will debut.  

Esteemed chef Craig Koketsu (Quality Meats) will create the summer-inspired menu with contemporary classic dishes, such as Lemon Sole with Provencal Vegetables, Fire Roasted Lamb with Barbecued Cherries, and Lobster Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette. In addition to the main menu offerings, Koketsu has developed special menus that feature produce of the season at its best. For the opening, the menu was comprised of summer corn with dishes like Kumamoto Oysters with Fresh Corn Milk, Grilled Veal Chop with Corn Succotash, and a side of White Grits with Freshly Shaved Corn . Later in the season, this menu will feature heirloom tomatoes.  

Richard Leach, James Beard award winner, will be executive pastry chef with a stable of summer confections that delight for their concentrated flavors and stunning presentations. For Park Avenue Summer, Leach's dessert selections include Roasted Peaches with Crisp Corn Pudding, Peach Sorbet and Sweet Corn Panna Cotta, Raspberries with Goat Cheese Mousse, Honey and Lemon Thyme, and Chocolate and Fresh Peppermint Warm Custard and Ice Cream Bar.

The team behind midtown rustic American restaurant Quality Meats collaborated to create the Park Avenue projects: Park Avenue Summer, Park Avenue Autumn, Park Avenue Winter, and Park Avenue Spring, investing over a year of planning and over $1.5 million. Michael Stillman joins forces with award-winning design firm AvroKO (Public, Stanton Social) on the concept and all aspects of architecture, design, and graphics of the new restaurant. In order to facilitate the complete transformation of the restaurant four times a year with a minimum of downtime for the restaurant, AvroKO spent six months offsite, creating an elaborate architecture, which can be installed and easily converted with intricate panels to form the basis for each seasonal design. All physical components for the four Park Avenue projects will be born from one key necessity: transformability.  To effectively change both the mood and the architectural details of the space, several systems of receptacles will be devised throughout the restaurant.  

Custom steel wall frames will surround the space and will be built to accept differing seasonal panels. These panels will not only have unique materials for each season, ranging from wood, to porcelain, to mirror, but also have unique architectural details that will affect the style of the space overall.

For the Park Avenue project, AvroKO endeavored to design a space with a sense of discovery, rather than focus on creating stereotypical, physical manifestations of a "season." This led to using Captain James Cook's explorative travels as a loose design reference. The designers researched the regions he had visited in each of his major expeditions as a way of framing each season. Summer in particular has references from the Galapagos Islands, envisioned through a classic, naturalist's lens, and then reinterpreted with a modernist's sensibilities. Forty hand-cast tortoise shells are mounted throughout the space on high gloss lacquered panels as part of a custom steel frame system that will change seasonally. Cook's original maps are utilized as a departure point for the identity, menu graphics, and wine labels. Reclaimed, whitewashed wood from a coastal town also forms portions of the ceiling planes, doors and cabinets, an elegant, weathered foil to the mercury-dipped porcelain fineries they house.

Each season will be toasted with custom blends of wine, made for the Park Avenue project by esteemed winemakers. The first season, Park Avenue Summer will be fêted with an apropos summer rose of pinot noir, made for the restaurant by Hartley Ostini Hitching Post, the Santa Barbara County winery that received worldwide attention in the film Sideways. In addition, there will be 'Champagne for all Seasons.' The seasonal transformation of the beverage program is not limited to wines: there will also be a vodka/Champagne bar that features two or three seasonal mixers, developed by Richard Leach, an award-winning pastry chef with wine director Matt Coughlin. For summer, the mixers will be Rhubarb-Lime, Peach with Lemon Verbena, and Lychee with Orange Zest and Basil.

The Park Avenue wine list consists of 300 selections, drawn from wine regions around the world with a special offering of summer-inspired wines. White wines are divided into six major grape variety and style sections: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, and Rhone-style whites. Red wines focus on two main grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. The "Summer List" includes a list of Cabernet Francs for summer sipping, a selection of wines from California's Mer Soleil vineyard, as well as wines grown and vinified near world-famous beach regions like Carmel, Santorini, and The Hamptons.

A generous offering of 25 wines by the glass, including four roses, incorporates many of the summer-themed wines, as well as wines from the core wine list. Additionally, Park Avenue Summer will carry an exclusive offer of the Summerland 2004 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard.

The restaurant's phone number will be 212-644-1900. The space is designed for 125 guests and has private dining rooms to accommodate 20 to 75. The Kitchen Table, located in a temperature-controlled room in the center of the kitchen, is available for private dining with a Chef's menu that highlights ingredients that are the essence of the season.