Austin Johnson used to run the kitchen at One White Street in Tribeca, a restaurant that once held a Michelin star. At his new place on Hudson Street, he set the hours so he can finish work around 8:30 p.m. instead of staying for the late nights of a tasting menu. His new place, H. Valley, is a market. It has a children's fridge of mac and cheese and baked fish sticks, and it makes its own dog food.
Johnson's move is part of a pattern. Over about six weeks this fall, Hudson Street turned over from Leroy Street up to Bank Street. Every chef who arrived came from a format built on advance commitment: tasting menus, reservation releases and full bottles. Each one opened something easier to drop into.
A Michelin Chef Opened a Grocery
H. Valley opened September 23 at 569 Hudson Street, at West 11th Street. It comes from Hudson Street Hospitality, the group behind Made in New York Pizza and White Horse Tavern, so it sits close to a corner the same operators already run. Eater NY reported that the 2,500-square-foot space builds on the high-end grocery model Johnson developed at Rigor Hill Market. It's stocked with prepared dinners, ready-to-cook meats, sauces, pastas and breads.
Most of the day here can be eaten with one hand. Mornings bring coffee and pastries from head baker Grayson Claes, plus a bacon, egg and cheese on a biscuit. On weekends there's an omelet bar, the same one that started at Rigor Hill. Lunch is three hot sandwiches and three cold ones. One of them is turkey with honey mustard, pickled apple slaw and goat cheese on honey-oat sourdough. The dog food is called Dion's Diet and is made with Hudson Valley trout, chicken and duck. As Johnson told Eater, "The dogs are customers, too."
H. Valley's site lists hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. It's closed Monday and Tuesday. The plans also include a Friday farmers market from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., along with private dinners, visiting chefs and pop-ups. For now, the cafe has only limited seating, so most of what it sells leaves in a bag.
Eleven Madison Park's Chef Dropped the Tasting Menu
Seven blocks south, at 435 Hudson Street between Leroy and Morton, Daniel Humm opened Humm on Saturday, October 10. It took the space that En Brasserie occupied for years. The useful comparison is with his own flagship. At Eleven Madison Park the full tasting menu costs $385 per person. Humm's menu is entirely à la carte, and the larger proteins run from $48 to $125, with the top price meant for two.
The format change matters more than the prices. According to Resy's guide to the restaurant, tables are released three weeks ahead at noon, and some capacity is held for walk-ins, especially at the bar. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The bar and lounge serve shorter menus. The launch plan was dinner only, with lunch described as a later addition.
The Infatuation's October 26 review points straight at that bar. It suggests walking in to order from the "shorter but still substantial bar menu," which also gives you a look at the Francesco Clemente murals on the dining room ceiling. The same review praises the $108 chicken, roasted in a clay oven with cheesy brioche tucked under the skin. It calls the whole charred eggplant in a fried, sweet shell even better. The dish getting the most attention online is the $34 caviar-topped mini bagel. It's a milk-bread item on the dinner menu, not a morning bagel counter.
A chef known for one of the city's longest dinners has built a room that a neighbor can try on a Tuesday without booking. That's the same trade Johnson made at West 11th Street, at a different price.
At West 10th Street, the Wine Comes by the Glass
Justine's on Hudson, the wine bar Justine Rosenthal opened in 2023 at 518 Hudson Street, closed October 17. The announcement teased something new at the address. That new thing is Rosette, which the Village Reader reported for the corner of West 10th Street with a Tuesday, November 3 opening date. Rosenthal owns it. Lauren Goldfarb, formerly a sommelier and beverage captain at Jean-Georges, is wine director and general manager. Cali Faulkner, chef and owner of Little Falcon in Brooklyn, runs the kitchen. She has cooked at Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, Oxalis and Verjus in Paris.
The team comes from fine dining, and the wine program is built to lower the stakes. The list draws on the five-decade relationships of Rosenthal Wine Merchant, the import business of Justine's father, Neal I. Rosenthal. It focuses mostly on France and Italy, with a few rare Swiss bottles and a selection of older wines from the family cellar. Producers include Levet for Côte-Rôtie and Paolo Bea for Umbrian wines. The by-the-glass list is long, so guests can try unfamiliar producers and older bottles without ordering a full one.
Faulkner's menu is French-rooted and uses produce from Mad Rose Ranch, the Rosenthal family farm in Pine Plains, New York. The menu includes potato rosettes filled with egg custard and caramelized leek and topped with Osetra caviar. There's also a grilled mackerel with three sauces that recreate potato leek soup, and a half golden chicken glazed with Mad Rose Ranch honey and miso and finished over charcoal. Reservations are through Resy.
The Corner at Bank Street Closed After 16 Years
The new rooms replaced older ones. Mémé, the Mediterranean restaurant on the corner of Hudson and Bank, served its last night on Saturday, October 24, after 16 years "in the most beautiful neighborhood," as its farewell put it, according to Eater NY's October closings report. The Hell's Kitchen location stays open. Just off the avenue, at 47 Eighth Avenue and West Fourth Street, AnnTremet Cake closed its bakery on October 12. The owners will keep making catering cakes from their Long Island City kitchen.
The side streets that cross Hudson picked up the same low-commitment pattern this fall:
- Bar à Part, 72 Bedford Street at Commerce Street, opened October 7 as a 15-seat wine bar and cafe with pastries from Clodagh Manning.
- Calabash, 183 Christopher Street near Weehawken Street, started as an Afro-Caribbean bakery serving breakfast on October 2 and added dinner on October 9.
- Legion, 140 Charles Street at Greenwich Street, opened September 12 with Southern-influenced cooking. It offers a tasting menu, but also an à la carte list alongside it.
Legion is the closest thing to a holdout, and it still lets you order à la carte. Taken together, the fall openings around Hudson Street favor counters, small rooms and daytime hours. Our August look at the West Village's reopened rooms covered the summer's openings, most of which moved into rooms that had already been restaurants.
Hudson Street, South to North, This Week
Here's how to use the street, walking north from Leroy:
- 435 Hudson, Humm. Arrive near the 5 p.m. opening and ask about the bar. If you'd rather book, Resy releases tables at noon, three weeks out.
- 518 Hudson at West 10th, Rosette. The long by-the-glass list is the easy way into the Rosenthal cellar. Reservations are on Resy.
- 569 Hudson at West 11th, H. Valley. Open at 7 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday for a biscuit sandwich, or stop in before 7 p.m. for a prepared dinner and the dog's trout. Monday and Tuesday are closed.
- 581 Hudson at Bank, the former Mémé. The corner where the walk used to end is now dark.
For more on the streets around these addresses, our West Village neighborhood guide covers the blocks between the river and Seventh Avenue South.
When storefronts change hands, so does the daily routine of the blocks around them, and that affects which apartments feel well placed. If you're thinking about a home near Hudson Street, or wondering how this fall's changes affect a place you already own, Andrew Azoulay and the team follow these corners closely. Request a private consultation.
