The Dinner Party debuts at One White Street

Come in, stay a while.

I’d love to have you all over for dinner, for one of those dreamy nights of friends and food, of lively conversation, perhaps some steak, crispy potatoes, lots of greens, fresh bread, and soft butter, bottles of wine that are drained as quickly as they are opened, the sound of forks on bone china mingling with loud and insistent laughter, tired happy souls who’ve had perhaps one too many, leaning into each other, lingering long after the last plates are cleared. That sounds nice, right? But until I wake up to an apartment with an actual dining room, let’s go to One White Street where chef Austin Johnson is hosting 36 lucky folks every night.

Let me rewind a bit. Before Chef Austin Johnson opened One White Street in a converted townhouse in Tribeca, he spent four years as the chef at Frenchie in Paris. There, he had a tasting room restaurant on one side of a flower-lined alleyway and a wine bar across the cobblestone street. He’d spend the night popping between both spaces, cooking highbrow meals assembled with tweezers on one side of the street, and rustic bar bites on butcher paper on the other. 

When he moved to New York, he envisioned a similar set up, a place with space for two concepts in one. “I walked into One White Street and it was still a home with bedrooms and closets and bathtubs, and I was like this could be so cool. I can do fancy upstairs and a wine bar downstairs, like I did at Frenchie,” he told me the other day. 

Austin opened One White Street in 2021 with a seven-course tasting menu on the two upper floors and an a la carte wine bar at street level, then modified things a bit, taking the 3rd floor for a la carte as well when it became clear there was a bit more demand in the neighborhood for more casual weeknight dining. 

Now, nearly three years in, Austin is shifting things again, turning his second floor dining room into an experience he’s calling The Dinner Party.

It’s still a prix fixe tasting menu, but one that’s less formal; there will be a communal toast to start, and a little from Austin about the restaurant’s farm, the food, and the history of the building, and what’s on your plate that night; everyone will be served at the same time, a few courses will be family style.

The inspiration for the change was a need to find more of an identity for the tasting room menu. “What I found after running the tasting menu concept in tandem with a la carte is that they were getting a bit too similar,” Austin said. “I wanted to have a second concept that is defined and has its own clear identity. I wanted a reset.” 

Austin says he feels the history of the building deeply influences the menu and the vibe of the Dinner Party; the second floor used to be a community dining hub in the 70s and was the former stomping grounds of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “It’s the embassy of their utopia,” he said. 

To prepare for the new concept, Austin redesigned the second floor, bringing in AD100 designer Jamie Drake of Drake/ Anderson so it feels like the home you’ve always wanted: an open kitchen, a central table in teal-toned iced platinum barn wood, warm banquettes piled with plush cut velvet throw pillow, walls hung with paintings from artists like Asmaa Aman Tran, Ann Aspinwall, and Gordon Matta-Clark. It’s lovely. 

While seating is not communal, the dining room is intimate (read: under 600 square feet), and he hopes the Dinner Party  allows people to interact and get to know one another. “There is this new energy of getting guests to chat,” he said. “You can come for a date night and have a cozy corner, but you can also say hello to the folks on your left and right, and maybe chat with someone who you never met.” 

The Dinner Party begins at either 6pm or 8:30pm, and your evening gets going with a toast from Austin and some snacks and crudite from the restaurant’s Rigor Hill Farm, likely harvested the day before.

After the toast, Austin is back in the open kitchen, cooking, and ferrying out a little of this, some of that; courses may be dropped at the same time, a few things will be plated individually, and some will go in the center of the table to share. 

The menu at the moment sounds like this: Red Radishes and Market Turnips with Garlic Hummus; Crispy Apple Waldorf Salad; Onion Tartlets; Smoked Parsnip Tempura; Chilled Foie Gras with orchard apples; Long Island Fluke with Jersey Citrus; Sea Scallop with lemon and maitake; Simmered Turnips with Uni and mussels; Honey Roasted Duck & Confit Duck Leg with sides of Simmered Carrots, Farm Corn Polenta and Black Truffle Rutabaga. 

To drink, Sommelier and Beverage Director Suzanne DeStio (previously of Eleven Madison Park) is not only doing two wine pairings (one regular, $168, one reserve, $228) but she’s also added a Farm Juice Pairing ($60), that means a variety of freshly pressed juices—beet, apple, celery—with or without alcohol, in cocktails like The Farm Spritz: vodka, Rigor Hill Farm mint, prosecco, and lemon. 

After dessert—Olive Oil Pavlova, Fig Cotton Candy, Fennel Seed and Blackberry Biscotti, and Brown Butter Madeleines—your evening ends with gratitude, a thank you to everyone for coming. “I am hosting 36 people a night, on the second floor of a townhouse that feels very much like they are in my home,” Austin told me. “There is a good chance I made their reservation and saw them at the market that day. We thrive off the community.”

A Dinner Party at One White Street is open Tuesday through Saturday, with two seatings at 6PM and 8:30PM for $228 per guest. Reservations are available via Resy.