Concept: Commerce
Location: New York City
Opened: Feb. 7, 2008
Co-owners: Tony Zazula and Harold Moore
Footprint: 2,000 square feet
Average Check: $55
Seating: 100 in dining room, 10 at bar
Staff: 52
Key Design Elements: Refinished leather banquettes, antique wall sconces, cleaned-up subway-style wall tiles, a restored 1941 art-deco Brunswick bar and a 16-by-4-foot dining-room mural depicting women resting after a harvest

APPETIZERS

Duck and foie gras rillettes terrine with black-cherry-shallot jam $19

Marinated fluke sashimi with chile, lime and petite radish salad $16

ENTRÉES

Braised beef, bone marrow and sliced sirloin with crushed cauliflower $34

Young cod in a stew of sweet peas, speck ham and black truffle $27

MARKET SPECIALS

Parsnip soup with black cherry, foie gras and maple-syrup gelée $14

Fettuccini with sausage, peppers and broccoli rabe $12

THINGS TO SHARE

Whole roasted chicken for two with potato purée and foie gras bread stuffing (priced per person) $27

DESSERT

Dark chocolate soufflé with spumoni semifreddo and traditional crème Anglaise $15

REBIRTH: Commerce, on the eponymously named street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, is the latest manifestation of a space formerly home to a speakeasy, a post-Prohibition tavern, and Grange Hall, a local-favorite brunch and dinner spot. Co-owners Tony Zazula and Harold Moore wanted to pay homage to the building’s swanky-neighborhood-speakeasy roots in creating an urbane but comfortable restaurant and bar—the type of place that serves warm oysters in champagne with potatoes, leeks and caviar but still holds tables for walk-ins. “The idea here was to draw on the potential for a dining experience that could be fun, hip, modern yet a throwback in terms of references to grand old New York,” Zazula says. On the bar menu: the Daisy, a cocktail made with fig jam, rye whiskey and bitters.

SHARE PRICE: Among Chef Moore’s favorite menu features are the “Things to Share”—a whole chicken, a braised beef shank, a porterhouse or steamed dorade, priced per person and presented for show at the table before being returned to the kitchen for plating. “We have a lot more items than most [restaurants do] for sharing,” Moore says. “People seem to be really receptive to that. It’s just a way to be sort of convivial with people.”

BALANCED AMBITION: Having started to see consumers “gravitate toward places ... that are perceived as less than fancy” while leading the kitchens at Montrachet and March, Moore says he sought to develop a restaurant “where people would want to go and stay.” Striving for refined familiarity, the menu offers updated takes on lobster Newburg and spaghetti carbonara. Adds Zazula: “People want to come out in their designer jeans and their designer T-shirts and their sneakers, yet no one should overlook the fact that … no matter how informal they may appear, they’re as sophisticated and refined in their palate as everybody else.”