After a soft opening during New York Fashion Week, Eighth She officially welcomed the public to her Chelsea digs on March 10. After visiting the cocktail restaurant in its first week of debut, it’s clear that The Eighth is still fine-tuning the execution of aspects of its show. Some restaurants make an effort to find their feet, and The Eighth appears to be one of them – perhaps not too surprising, as The Eighth has thrown the gauntlet at itself with an esoteric concept and particularly detailed ideas for service each night.
Julian Legierde and Valmira Gashi teamed up with Richie Romero to create The Eighth. Ligerd and Gashi Studio Ligerd She has designed hospitality venues such as La Grande Boucherie, Hudson Club and Olio e Più; Romero is one of the nightlife pioneers behind places like 1 Oak and Up&Down.
The press release announcing the arrival of The Eighth bears a resemblance to a recent article by one creative writing major, describing the space as “conceived as a space outside of ordinary time…[its] The task is not to try to recreate a particular era, but rather the opposite. Instead, it draws from the absence of history – the moments, stories and emotions that have seeped through the cracks.
So, what exactly does “reflecting an era” look like as a restaurant? I ventured in to find out on opening night.
The moment I stepped inside, I was struck by the beautifully lit bar, and The Eighth is clearly the design team’s creation. Gashi describes the bar as “very central…we put the most love into the bar.” This much is clear: the backlit alabaster stone bar glows like an altar of molten rock. The back bar radiates an amber light, and a sunken box of mini lights reminiscent of disco adds a golden touch to everything.
Gashi and Lligard chose two symbols for the eighth: a snake that forms the number eight and represents renewal, and a butterfly that symbolizes gravity. “With Butterfly, we had the idea that this tape creates an ‘Oh my God, I have to go see it’ moment when someone walks through the door,” says Gashi. “It’s the idea of giving in to temptation, seeing the light and going for it.”
The Eighth’s black tables, arranged around the bar, are soft and marbled, with plush, deep purple velvet seating. Chandeliers highlight the bar’s warm lighting, and silver ball-chain curtains feel like a subtle nod to Chelsea’s industrial history as well as its more hedonistic era of nightclubs. This ambiguity is intentional.
“We wanted to represent Chelsea’s different pasts, from industrial to artistic, without sticking to one era – it’s all a woven cloth, not a single thread,” Gashi tells the Observer. “It creates the idea that anyone can have their own experience, their own story here; that’s Chelsea.”
The eighth aesthetic is what attracts you first and lasts longest during your visit. This may be why talk of it — the ambiance and interior decor — comes up before any mention of the dishes or drinks, both here in this story and in the restaurant’s press release. The “eighth” is clearly a design-driven concept, but the drinks, food and important promise of this place’s program are lacking – or perhaps still finding their way.
This promise was one of the “rituals” or “ceremonies.” On The Eighth’s website, potential guests are enticed with “three celebratory moments: 8pm to wake up, 10pm to indulge, and 12am to give up.” According to Legeard, each party was intended to be a different mix of cocktails and small bites to create an immersive experience and reflect the mood of the room every time. There was a lot of ambiguity about what this ritual actually looked like, which Gashi explained was intentional: “I don’t want people to know what comes next. People can come again and have different experiences each time.”
Or they may not have any experience regarding these ceremonies because by the time opening night rolled around, The Eighth wasn’t sure what these rituals might actually look like. Initially fascinated by these festivities, this writer waited impatiently until 8 p.m., confident that the magical and borderline religious cocktail experience would take over the room at any moment. When nothing happened by 8:30pm, I asked our very nice server, who explained that they were still considering whether and how to do the three rituals. He confirms this to us some Guests will be offered some sort of special experience on a regular basis, and I wrangled the head waiter to give a demo just for our table. It wasn’t quite the opulence one would expect from a room-level ritual, but the specialty cocktails were artfully presented with the drama of rolling nitrous oxide. Mezcal was paired with charred pineapple and pink pepper. The drink was bright, refreshing and delicious.
Other drinks show great potential for intense, vibrant flavors, but may still need some tweaking. Call Lilly sounds complex with bourbon, Lillet Blanc, black tea liqueur, calamansi, and rose spray, and it actually smells amazing. But on the palate, the calamansi dominated too much, resulting in something more juicy. Likewise, the tequila, Campari, and cocchi rosa cocktail, Desert Rose, had a scent you’d want to capture forever as a candle or incense, thanks to the additions of palo santo smoke, rose vermouth, and sage. However, its flavor moved back into fruit punch territory. Overall, the drink menu consists of these new creations, as well as evolved classics like Negronis and Gin and Tonic. These selections are accessible yet sophisticated, with items like spices and fresh herbs, which in time can add up to an impressive assortment. They just need some connection to balance it out.
Ditto on the menu; There are hits and misses. The beet tartare was rich, earthy and slightly sweet. The classic shrimp cocktail was fresh and satisfying; And the crispy purple fries with black garlic aioli stole the show from their accompanying burger. Perhaps the star of the entire night was the semi-white chocolate with strawberries and rose meringue – custard and rich, balanced with the sweetness of the flowers and the tartness of the strawberries. However, the cucumber with sesame oil and chili felt like it needed more time to season and really absorb the sauce.
Ultimately, The Eighth shows promise and strikes a unique balance at Chelsea and New York in general: it’s charming, elegant, and conceptual. It is also warm and welcoming. “The Eighth” marquee at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 18th Street is large and refreshingly bright, in contrast to the quieter entrance one might expect from a high-profile venue such as this. Menu prices were surprisingly reasonable, with small plates costing at least $9 or $11, much less than what one Chelsea restaurant has charged in recent years.
“Everything at The Eighth is designed to be comfortable, inviting and slightly tweaked, to create this experience that will be different every time,” says Gashi. “The food and cocktails aren’t too flashy, it’s not about ‘Look, this is on fire or it has gold leaf’, it’s not about trending on Instagram. We want the opposite, we want people to feel in the present and enjoy the moment.”
“We want people to say, ‘Wow, the staff really took care of me,’ I came back for this, I’ll come back for that,” adds Legierde. This hospitality plays a notable role here. Gashi and Legierde have created an elegant and sophisticated restaurant with a new touch of accessibility and comfort. However, trying to achieve this and the mysterious concept of The Eighth can be very difficult.