The Debut of Cafe Commerce Marks a New Era for a Beloved Restaurant

1. Old regulars will find plenty to love.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia for the original Commerce,” Moore says. Old customers have often asked him if he can make the dishes they miss the most, like his coconut layer cake. And despite his French training, which he put to good use at his short-lived but stellar Bistro Pierre Lapin, “the world doesn’t recognize me as a French chef,” he adds.

For the Upper East Side space, which became available through a friend, he reconsidered the Commerce brand. “At first, I was like ‘nah — you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.’ But that’s why it’s named Cafe Commerce and not Commerce — it will be an homage to, and derivative of, the original. The core and the heart of Commerce will be there, but there will also be some new things, and it will be a restaurant in a different light,” Moore explains.

2. Expect some retro menu items — and an Easter egg or two.

At first blush, Moore’s menu reads “New American” with a few pastas and French touches including a plat du jour, but look closely and you will find several of the dishes he’s been making throughout his career. One is the “pasta primavera circa 1988,” which nods to an old dish from Le Cirque when Daniel Boulud was running its kitchen. When Daniel opened, Le Cirque regulars would ask Boulud’s team (which Moore was a part of) for the dish, which they made upon request. “That’s sort of where I fell in love with it. I thought, this is a good opportunity to bring something like that back — and we’ll see if it works,” Moore says. It will have little diamond cuts of zucchini and peeled tomatoes, along with asparagus tips, haricot vert, mushrooms, frozen peas, and housemade pasta.

Moore is also revising his roast chicken with foie gras stuffing, which he first made when he accidentally wildly overordered chicken when he was a young chef working at Montrachet. Knowing that he needed to move the birds, he roasted them whole with herb butter under the skin, toasted sourdough croutons in the rendered fat and drippings left in the pan, and added pieces of foie gras. “And, once upon a time, [former New York magazine critic] Adam Platt caught hold of it and called it the best roasted chicken in New York,” he recalls. “There was no turning back. It took on a life of its own.” Also coming back are the 20-herb salad and sweet potato tortelloni with pomegranate and brown butter.

But not everything will be the same. Commerce only served burgers at select times, but uptown, there will be a full-time burger. This one will be similar to the original; expect dill pickle chips, lettuce, tomato, and onion. He’s also excited to introduce diners to the ricotta and spinach gnudi.

The menu at Cafe Commerce will likely evolve over time, too, as Moore changes it according to guests’ preferences. He explains: “I always say — and it’s kind of frustrating for everyone who works with me — that the customers ultimately write the menu. We do our best and then they tell us by what they order, what’s going to make it. You just keep adjusting until there’s a good rhythm to the movement of the product.”

3. Yes, there will be coconut cake for dessert — and birthday cake, too.

Even before opening, Moore was baking his signature coconut cakes for fans around Thanksgiving. He stole the recipe, he jokes, from a Martha Stewart cookbook and then modified it. Between the layers, he stacks coconut pudding, and the cake is enveloped in cream cheese frosting and half toasted coconut shreds. It’s a recipe that defies logic, he says. “The more good technique you use with this cake, the worse it is.”

It’s not the only cake from his past on the menu. “I’m about to bust out the birthday cake for the first time in, I don’t even know, 10 years,” he adds. The simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting and “an ungodly amount of sprinkles” is presented with a birthday candle, whether it’s the diner’s birthday or not.”

4. A 19-foot-long mural has come out of storage.

Cafe Commerce has a more intimate footprint than Commerce did — it seats a bit over half as many people — but expect some similar design touches. Moore tapped Paul Dennis, who designed the original restaurant, to work on the new space, and the duo hopes to convey its tavern feel with coffered ceilings, the same saffron-colored paint, and the 19-foot-long mural “Saint Sebastian and the Hunt for the Sisters: Drowning in the Rivers” by artist David Joel that hung downtown. The piece, which features twin sisters and Saint Sebastian, will once again hang over the bar and is on permanent loan to the restaurant, as long as it remains open.

5. But most of all, it’s a restaurant for the neighborhood.

“At the original Commerce we were legendary for these long, long waits on the weekends — it wasn’t necessarily all enjoyable. People ultimately had a good time, but there was a lot of drama in getting to your seats,” Moore explains. He wants to avoid that at the new place, adding: “we’re going to be a little bit more respectful of guests’ timing.” He plans to hold tables for diners who live in the neighborhood and hopes to save half of the seats at the bar for walk-ins.

The plat du jour is another way he’s thinking about regulars. He’s using it as a chance to serve dishes like his oft-requested “feast of shells” with spicy steamed clams, mussels, and shrimp, that may not make sense to offer daily either because they utilize special ingredients that may perish quickly or dishes that require lots of babysitting in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, at the bar, don’t expect particularly inventive drinks — and that’s by design. “As much as I enjoy [having] a mixologist, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best thing for a neighborhood spot, [where] I think you need to have versions of classics that might have a little twist on them, but nothing too far out there.” The bar will pour a few martinis including an espresso martini (which Moore is a fan of), plus an agave stinger with tequila and burnt honey and a nor’easter with rum, fresh ginger, and mint.

Cafe Commerce is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5 to 11 p.m., with lunch service launching down the line.

Devra Ferst is a Brooklyn-based food and travel writer who has contributed to The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Eater, NPR, and numerous other publications. She is Resyco-author of “The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long.” Follow her on  Instagram. Follow Resy, too.