UNION SQUARE — A 20-year-old Union Square seafood restaurant is reopening this week with a million-dollar facelift, including a brand new oyster bar downstairs named for the bank that once called the building home, and live music on weeknights.
Blue Water Grill, which has operated out of 31 Union Square West at East 16th Street since 1996, reopens with a new chef on Tuesday after undergoing more than $1 million interior renovations this summer, including the installation of a new oyster bar, Metropolis, tucked into the former bank vaults below-ground, according to a spokeswoman for the restaurant.
The new interior of both restaurants was designed to highlight the historic character of the interior of the landmarked building, which once housed the Bank of the Metropolis. Blue Water Grill features a new bar top made of Calcutta marble, bar stools made of brass and saddle leather, and crystal chandeliers.
Diners at Metropolis will get to see live performances by jazz and soul bands five nights a week in the space, which is decked out with gray paneling, ebonized wood flooring and velvet-draped walls.
Metropolis will offer a menu cooked up by former Günter Seeger and Per Se chef Adam Raksin and includes daily oyster specials, bite-sized offerings like surf and turf tartare on a Melba croissant and heartier dishes like the lemony sole Grenobloise and the roast chicken Grand Mere.
Upstairs, Blue Water Grill features a new menu from chef Chris Meenan, formerly of the Upper East Side’s Vaucluse, offering a raw bar, a wide variety of seafood staples like Alaskan cod with porcini crust, Lobster Milanese crusted with oyster crackers, and pasta dishes such as farfalle with crab.
Meenan rounds out the menu with market dishes accented with seasonal ingredients from the nearby Union Square Greenmarket, including late-summer tomatoes with feta and mint chimichurri and crispy cauliflower with tahini.
Entree prices at Metropolis range from $15 for a Caesar Cardini salad to $49 for a filet mignon. At Blue Water Grill market dishes and raw bar options hover between $12 and $20, while fish and meat range from $23 for Alaskan black cod to $49 for a dry-rubbed steak.
Metropolis is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m., and Blue Water Grill is open for lunch Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and for dinner Sunday and Monday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 11:30 p.m., as well as Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
