At the end of 2015, restaurateur Thomas Carter and chef Ignacio Mattos, the duo behind Matter House, were tapped to create the new restaurant and coffee shop at the Met Breuer in collaboration Beyer Blinder Belle, the architects that led the building’s overall renovation. Carter and Mattos previously created trendy downtown restaurants Estela and Café Altro Paradiso, and Thomas P. Campbell, the director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hoped that the pair would bring the same kind of hip ambience to the stately Brutalist Upper East Side building that now houses the modern and contemporary branch of the museum. With the opening of Flora Bar and Flora Coffee, the Met Breuer’s reinvention takes another step forward.

Flora Bar is open to the public without a ticket and is located one level below the sidewalk with a seating capacity of 74. Throughout the space, iconic elements play off of updated, modern decor. For example, an ample wood-and-marble bar and custom stools by Brooklyn-based designer Steven Bukowski complement the original concrete walls and columns, while the ceiling, with Marcel Breuer’s original disc-shaped lights, is mirrored by the circular Mountain White Danby marble tables. Flora Bar will maintain separate hours from the museum and will be accessible through the main entrance even when the museum is closed. 

Flora Bar and Flora Coffee
945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
Tel: 646-558-5383
Designers: Beyer Blinder Belle with Matter House

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