Inside A24’s secret New York restaurant

The notion of a pre- or post-theatre supper takes on new attract when the restaurant and the leisure share the identical proprietor. Final month (September 2025), impartial movie studio and distributor A24 revived a chunk of Village historical past with the reopening of the century-old Cherry Lane Theatre, the oldest Off-Broadway venue in New York, following a multi-year restoration. Alongside a recent roster of theatre, comedy, music and movie, the venue now additionally gives Wild Cherry, an arthouse-style restaurant that has swiftly change into one of many metropolis’s sizzling tickets.

Wild Cherry opens inside Cherry Lane Theatre

True to A24’s understated aesthetic, Wild Cherry favours intimacy over spectacle. The 45-seat room, led by cooks Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr (of Le Veau d’Or, Le Rock and Frenchette), feels equal elements neighbourhood hang-out and cinematic vignette. Designed by Zeb Stewart, identified for Brooklyn’s Lodge Delmano, Café Colette and Frenchette, the area layers nostalgia with refined glamour: deep inexperienced banquettes and limewash wall paint solid a moody glow beneath a slatted ceiling, whereas funfair bulbs and chequerboard flooring nod to retro diners. A putting 12-seat horseshoe bar anchors the room.

The menu performs its half with thought of aptitude. Uncooked seafood leads the opening act (oysters, tuna crudo, Bang’s Island mussels, entire dressed crab) earlier than giving option to heartier crowd-pleasers: a lobster membership, roasted monkfish kebab and a cheeseburger with simply the precise swagger. A steak for 2 arrives with baked potato, inexperienced salad and a swirl of soft-serve, whereas coconut cake gives a delicate curtain name. To drink, basic cocktails and pure wines set the tone, however the true showstopper is the Scorpion Bowl, a shared concoction served in classic Murano glass – the wild cherry on prime of an already cinematic night time out.

Wild Cherry is situated at 38 Commerce St, New York, NY 10014, United States.