Humm, From Eleven Madison Park Chef Daniel Humm, Debuts in the West Village

1. The menu leans into wood fire cooking and charcoal grilling.

Explaining the food at Humm is “very easy, but also complicated,” says Magi. “We call ourselves modern American.” Much of the menu is cooked in a towering wood fire oven that greets guests as they enter the dining room or on a charcoal grill, so you get the smell of fire during the meal. “It’s soulful — [and] very simple, in a certain way,” Magi adds. Think housemade rigatoni with a pomodoro sauce that took 10 trials to dial in.

Unlike Eleven Madison Park, which focuses on a seasonal tasting menu, the à la carte one here is more fluid, changing slightly based on the ingredients available from Magic Farms, which supplies EMP, and those at the farmers market. Expect vegetable dishes like eggplant Milanese with green tomato and cucumber, and baked sweet potatoes with pickled red onion and Calabrian chile.

For proteins, there’s charcoal grilled branzino sourced from Spain and Brigette’s roasted chicken for two, named after Humm’s mother. Despite some speculation about whether Humm would serve the legendary foie gras-stuffed chicken from The NoMad, the team opted for a rendition that’s a touch lighter here. Brioche and parmesan are tucked under the skin of the bird, and the chicken is seasoned with lemon, and thyme.

In a nod to the city, there’s also the caviar bagel, a miniature bagel-shaped milk bread (don’t expect it to have the chew of a typical bagel) stacked high with osetra caviar. And, to end dinner, there’s a riff on milk and honey, a combination both Humm and Magi were raised on and have featured at other restaurants. Here, it’s presented as a milk soft-serve sundae with white chocolate-covered oat shortbread, fresh honeycomb, buckwheat honey from Andrew’s Honey, bee pollen, and dehydrated milk foam.

2. There’s a roving martini cart — plus a separate bar and lounge.

There’s no shortage of theatricality to Humm. Consider the martini cart that will rove around the place much like the Manhattan bar cart at Eleven Madison Park. It focuses on the Humm Martini, a vesper variation, that can be doctored with three different tinctures —  citrusy yuzu and grapefruit, spicy togarashi, or savory morel mushroom.

The cocktails are designed to be “delicious and accessible,” says Rollinson. Many borrow flavors from the kitchen like the Golden Acre (white rye, sauternes, cardamom, and squash) and the Bosun (cap corse blanc, tomato, basil, and coconut soda).

Sommelier Michael Duffy’s nearly 80-page wine list sports a large selection of Champagnes and longstanding celebrated producers as well as some less expected options like a Riesling from Slovakia and several vintages of Château Musar from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

If you want to pop in just for a pre-dinner drink or a nightcap, there’s a dedicated bar with standing room at high tops and a sexy deep maroon lounge that seats just 20 people under a sprawling flower-shaped light. Both serve a menu featuring Humm’s take on bar fare like fried chicken and a Humm dog — a turkey hot dog wrapped in turkey bacon served with gruyere, truffle mayo, and celery relish in a brioche bun.

3. Expect very knowledgeable staff along with some familiar faces.

Both Magi and Rollinson pulled from staff ranks at Eleven Madison Park to build their teams for Humm. “It’s really hard to build a culture from something new. You need to have the right people who are championing that every day, and who are setting the standard for the other staff,” Rollinson says. In the kitchen, Eleven Madison Park’s former pastry sous chef Orianna Méndez is the pastry chef here and Alex Peña Martinez, who worked with Magi on the team’s pop-up in Charleston, S.C., is also working at Humm.

In the dining room, the team is employing a similar service philosophy, particularly an attention to detail. At Eleven Madison Park, Rollinson explains, “We make sure that if a guest asks for something, we follow through with that. If a guest asks who did the artwork, we know that. If a guest asks where the bathroom is, we’re going to show the guest to the bathroom. All those things are really important. And we can do a lot of that in this space.”

As they do uptown, the playlist at Humm pulls from West African jazz and funk. It won’t dominate the sound at the restaurant, but “If you listen hard enough, the music is going to be really, really cool,” Rollinson adds.

4. Art is absolutely everywhere.

Humm’s design offers a stark contrast from the look of Eleven Madison Park. In place of the restrained, light, and airy space, Humm is designed to feel cozy and warm with reds, maroons, and ochers throughout.

From the moment you walk in and clock the host stand created by Johnson, there’s something to see wherever you turn your eye. In the bar, there’s the late French American artist Louise Bourgeois’s “10 am Is When You Come to Me,” which features her hands and those of her assistant, as well as a sculpture by the artist. In the slinky lounge, a painting called “Untitled Homes” by Johnson stretches across nearly an entire wall and sits under a flower-shaped light fixture designed by Yovanovitch.

Move into the dining room, and a large mosaic next to the hearth greets you. You can also seek out the mythical creatures by Clemente — whom Humm previously collaborated with for the Clemente Bar above EMP — frolicking throughout the space on curtains, in the carpeting, and on custom tiles. Most striking are the recessed sections of ceiling painted with oil sticks by Clemente like one with a starfish motif that feels as if it could be in a dream set at the bottom of the ocean.

Humm will be open Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 10:30 p.m.

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 co-author of “The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long.” Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.