Canary Club brings NOLA to LES with Creole creations & Surrealist surroundings
Canary Club — a restaurant, cocktail lounge and live music club — brings spice to the Lower East Side thanks to restaurateur Ryan Chadwick and his wife Emily Frantz. Located at 303 Broome Street, Canary Club draws on the multicultural, musical, spiritual and bohemian influences of Louisiana.
Chadwick already runs Grey Lady as well as Escobar Nightclub in Aspen, Colorado. For this swanky venture, he teamed up with Frantz, a notable interior designer known for her design of the Monarch Steak House in Aspen and Steak house 316 in Boulder, Colorado.
Canary Club’s menu of shared plates is led by chef Tadd Johnson, former executive chef at The Smile and sous chef at The Standard East Village, where he worked under Michelin-starred chef John Fraser. The menu features playful versions of modern American dishes cooked in a wood-fired oven, with some French Creole influences.
Dishes include caviar with house-made voodoo spiced chips; charred chayote with pineapple, avocado, clementine and pickled red chilies; black sesame carrot tempura with chili-tahini, smoked paprika and dill; seeded broccoli with green chili and citrus; escargot with canary sauce and boo coo garlic; petite cochon and clams with savory tomato, crispy potato and crawfish butter; seafood boudin on toast with a savory stew, tarragon, deviled egg yolks and wood oven-roasted squab with creole butter and romesco sauce.
The beverage program includes cocktails that pay homage to classic New Orleans and New York favorites with a modern spin, natural wines and non-alcoholic options. Highlights from the beverage menu include Surrealist Manifesto: mezcal, Becherovka, maple, lemon, chocolate molé bitters; Absinthe A La Max Ernst: Calvados, Blanc Vermouth, cucumber, lemon, Absinthe; Dali’s Muse: Canary Club’s house “holy trinity” martini; Kush’s Hibiscus: hibiscus-infused gin, citrus cordial, lime; and under the “This Is Not A Cocktail” section, Magritte’s Apple: Seedlip spice, Weed Orchard apples, lemon and soda.
Alongside its beverage and food offerings, the heart of Canary Club is its live music, which will be offered nightly in two sessions. The evening sessions will consist of lively jazz, funk and instrumental music from well-known artists to up-and-coming artists, such as jazz musician Melanie Charles and Tash Neal from The London Souls with his new band, The Getback.
More intrepid guests can come for the late-night sessions where the vibe will turn up, and disco/dance music will take the main stage.
Inspired by the unusual colors of wild canaries, Frantz plays with various shades of contrasting red and green as the primary palette — softer shades in the upstairs dining room and bolder, more adventurous in the downstairs lounge and club spaces. Frantz also drew her inspiration from the Surrealist movement, known for vast stretches of color and primitive symbols, and the Dada movement’s sense of whimsy.
The intimate dining room features red leather banquettes that pop against a wall of light green glazed terracotta tiles and a custom hand-painted mural of tiles. Fern-colored hemp wallpaper is accented with white plaster sconces and a custom antiqued mirror.
A dark stairwell transports guests from the dining room to the downstairs lounge, an avant-garde space with dark green walls, pink marble floors and geometric black and white velvet banquette nooks accented with white monkey sconces from Italy. The lounge leads to the club room, which is where the main parties and live music take place.
Round columns, exiting from a partially mirrored ceiling, are wrapped in a geometric Hermès fabric, taken from an original tie design by Phillipe Mouquet, and an electric chartreuse silk moiré pattern covers the walls.
Soon after opening, Canary Club will also launch Canary Supper Club — a private room experience that is reminiscent of Jazz-age French salons but with a post-modern twist. Unexpected collaborations, pop-up chefs, natural wine pairings and social-driven dinners will be a key part of the Canary Supper Club brand and experience.
