At Crane Club, Chef Melissa Rodriguez Spreads Her Wings

1. Same space, new place.

Visitors to Crane Club — and fans of chef Rodriguez — may get a sense of déjà vu upon walking up to the restaurant; it’s housed in the exact same spot as the now-closed Al Coro, which is where Rodriguez earned two Michelin stars.

“I’m on the fence on whether I think [staying in the same location is] brilliant or psychotic,” Rodriguez says. “Honestly, it’s great for a lot of reasons. I know the ins and outs of the space, and that’s definitely an advantage.”

The team did significant renovations to the interior of the restaurant and the kitchen, overhauling the equipment and making upgrades like adding a new 12-foot grill for live-fire cooking.

2. Same space, new space.

The déjà vu guests might feel upon walking up to the space will likely end the moment they step inside. The interior of the restaurant has been completely “gutted to the studs,” Katz says. They took out stairwells and redid the mezzanine, making the space a bit less open than Al Coro, in order to add a moody feel to the room.

“The idea with the redo was to create more mystery as you walk through the room. Most people will walk in and go through the bar, which is a really low-ceilinged, moody, dark space, before you get into the dining room,” Katz said.

The bar, in particular, is a favorite of the team’s. It features a purple-red marble bar top, made out of rosso levanto marble. They hope the space appeals to those who want to enjoy a quick drink or meal at the bar.

“I don’t live too far from here, and when I think about the bars that I want to sit and eat at [in the neighborhood], there’s not a lot of them. It’s nice to be able to add to that,” Rodriguez says.

3. Expect lots of wood-fired vegetables.

Rodriguez, who has overseen multiple Michelin-starred restaurants, will lead the kitchen and whereas Al Coro was very much about handmade pastas and Italian fine dining, Crane Club is more global in its influences, and much more focused on live-fire cooking than her previous ventures. This marks the first time Rodriguez isn’t cooking strictly traditional Italian or French cuisine in a restaurant of her own.

“Everything has a lot to do with the grill. It’s focused on always being delicious, and a decent amount of vegetables. I would say there is just as much focus on vegetables as proteins,” she says.

That takes form in dishes like maitake mushrooms with cognac and Thai basil, a 30-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye, and roasted bone marrow with grilled filone bread, a yeasted sourdough bread that originates from Italy.

The restaurant will also feature a roving raw bar cart, delivering freshly shucked oysters and caviar service to your table, as well as a bread program that is baked entirely in house and served to the table in an edible basket made from a sourdough starter of whole wheat and regular flour, butter, and salt. A run of the raw bar cart, not including caviar service, costs $60 per person, or you can also order items à la carte.

Given the critical acclaim Rodriguez received for Al Coro, especially its pasta, you should know there are a few pastas on the Crane Club menu as well. They include Sardinian gnochetti made with buffalo butter, a seafood spaghettoni with saffron, and tortellini stuffed with fall squash and spinach, served in a Parmigiano Reggiano broth.

There are also several large-format desserts designed for two, including a Viennetta.

“You know, like the supermarket freezer-aisle ice cream cake that comes in a box,” Katz laughs. “Georgia [Wodder, the pastry chef] just reinvented the whole thing. It’s super delicious and could probably feed two to four people depending on how hungry you are.”

4. Not drinking? No problem.

Crane Club will feature an extensive wine list, headed up by Catherine Fanelli, of more than 1,000 labels. Fanelli also handled the list at Al Coro, and the list for Crane Club focuses on old world wines and international selections that they plan to grow and evolve as time goes on.

Chris Lemperle, who opened Crown Shy and Overstory with Katz, is bar director, working from a list with a strong emphasis on non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails.

“The program is going to feature a lot of ‘B-sides’ and forgotten classics,” Katz said. “We don’t have a non-alcoholic version of something like a dirty martini, but most of the stirred-and-shaken specialty cocktails will have a non-alcoholic version available.”

5. They hope Crane Club embodies the best of everything they’ve done before.

The opening of Crane Club marks the continuation of a partnership between Rodriguez, Katz, and the clubstaurant giant Tao Group. Known for restaurants that meld the menu and the party, like Sake No Hana and Cathédrale, Tao has also been involved in Rodriguez’s pizza restaurant next door, Mel’s, since 2023.

“So far, it’s been a really great marriage. We certainly went into it a little bit like a blind date, but it worked out pretty well. They do a certain kind of restaurant that I think everybody knows, and they do it really well. We’ve always done a different kind of restaurant, and we think we do it well too,” Katz notes. “The idea here is that if we can kind of put our efforts together the sum of the parts will be greater.”

The pair says they have maintained a lot of creative control, particularly in the kitchen, and that this restaurant will be more on the fine dining side of the Tao enterprise.

“This restaurant is certainly supposed to be the most ‘fine dining’ that exists within the Tao portfolio of restaurants,” Katz adds. “They have found a way to put a certain energy into a room. It probably feels a little more like a restaurant that Mel and I would do, but I hope it will have that energy that maybe we hadn’t been able to tap in the past.”

Crane Club will be open for dinner from 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and until midnight Thursday through Saturday. The bar will be open daily at 5 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.