I went to the Café Carlyle and was reminded of the New York that once was—and still could be
I almost don’t want to write about the Café Carlyle.
First opened back in 1955, the supper club inside the legendary hotel on the Upper East Side is an iconic New York destination in and of itself, but one that hasn’t been obsessed over in recent times—which is probably why the space has retained its glory for almost 70 years.
In a culture now defined by the new, the immersive, the visually (and virtually) pleasing, the Café Carlyle, a cavernous space featuring a simple stage and seating for up to 90 people, doesn’t necessarily fit the bill when it comes to must-visit lists developed, mostly, by new New Yorkers.
RECOMMENDED: NYC’s most iconic restaurants worth visiting at least once
And, yet, almost paradoxically, the supper club is the exact kind of venue that people flock to New York for: it’s exclusive but not hard to get into, it reeks of culture, will likely be the site of celebrity sightings on any given night, it has yet to drench TikTok and it’s simply marvelous in its straightforwardness.
Café Carlyle is a big night out without the fuss: the menu is as old-school as the space (prix-fixe options served by white-gloved waiters include steaks, salmon, oysters and cheesecakes), the martinis reign supreme and the 90-minute acts are mostly stripped down of the technological pyrotechnics that bigger concerts now rely on.
The carefully chosen, varied roster of performers throughout the decades adds to the allure of the experience: Elaine Stritch, Judy Collins, Chita Rivera, Isaac Mizrahi, Alan Cumming and Sutton Foster are just some of the folks who have a Carlyle residency under their belts.
On a recent Tuesday night, 35-year-old actress and, well, nepo baby (more on that later) Rumer Willis made her Café Carlyle residency return eight years after first performing there.
Wearing an organza-like bright pink dress, Willis, daughter of uber-famous actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, quickly proved that raw talent is, indeed, genetic.
Nepo baby or not, Willis earned her spot on that stage, singing classic tunes by Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and the Jackson 5 (her rendition of “I Want You Back” was just as good as the original) but also delving into the Broadway classics that the crowd that regularly frequents the Café Carlyle probably grew up singing.
Willis’ mom More was present during her daughter’s opening night alongside pal Zac Posen of fashion design fame—the sort of celebrities-in-the-wild sightings that New Yorkers like to pretend to be unaffected by but actually prove to them that they selected the right venue for their night out.
Following her performance, Willis stepped down and mingled among the handful of people still there gathering their credit cards and bracing for a warm summer night walk home or, perhaps, a nightcap at Bemelmans Bar, another timeless destination within the Carlyle Hotel.
In a way, spending the evening at the Café Carlyle feels like stepping into a time capsule, when New York wasn’t just about what’s next but felt more like a celebration of what actually is. We were running to our jobs and to our not-as-overpriced apartments back then also, but we were actually enjoying the in-between moments as well, perhaps because they weren’t strictly defined by endless scrolling on hand-sized screens.
A feeling of nostalgia most aptly defines the uptown destination, but it’s more than a yearning for a return to the past. In a way, catching a show at Café Carlyle feels like the ways of the past aren’t lost on us and that there is room for both modernity and tradition. Be prepared for a sense of earnestness to shake you up after an evening here, when you will realize that dwelling on what once was is not as efficient as trying to savor the very things that still make New York feel special amid the day-to-day chaos that also defines it. Look around: there are still plenty of them.
