This New York City Restaurant Transcends Its Mall Setting

As its brass-clad entrance suggests, this is no food court. Twin Tails is the latest venture from Chef Craig Koketsu of Quality Branded, the perennially busy hospitality group behind some of the city’s buzziest fine dining destinations: Bad Roman, the steak-forward Smith & Wollensky, and Mediterranean restaurant Zou Zou’s. Here, Koketsu toys with the vibrant flavors of Thailand and Vietnam while making quick pit stops in Cambodia and Laos. Instead of simply conveying Southeast Asian flavors, Koketsu makes them his own, often by reformatting traditional dishes into something completely unexpected. “Our King Crab & Uni Buns are a good example of this,” he tells Galerie. “We used the primary flavors of the traditional Cha Ca La Vong, turmeric and dill, but incorporated them into an aioli which we use to dress the crab meat.” 

That alchemy unfolds across his menu. An herbal salsa verde inspired by the Thai seafood sauce nam jim, for example, works unexpectedly well with the whole royal dorade sashimi. The flash-fried garlic shrimp pays homage to the signature dish of the famed Lotus of Siam off the Las Vegas Strip. The cured pork shank is drenched in soy and chile vinegar; escargots practically bounce off the tongue when slathered in green curry. Pair them with anything from beverage director Bryan Schneider’s regionally inspired menu—the exuberant salted lychee martini, a festive Phuket Swizzle (rum, passionfruit, Thai tea), or the sprightly Bangkok Screwdriver (vodka, calamansi, galangal, Thai basil, chili) are all prime picks.

On their journey, Koketsu and Quality Branded CEO Michael Stillman picked up the prolific hospitality interiors firm and longtime collaborators AvroKO, who saturated the 140-seat dining room with sultry finishes that serve as a portal to New York City’s fabled supper clubs from the 1970s and ‘80s. “We were very intentional with creating a respite entirely separate from the shops,” AvroKO principal and co-founder Adam Farmerie tells Galerie. The entry’s reclaimed brass doors segue Narnia-like into a corridor enveloped by pink and amber mirror-paneled walls, immediately setting a tone of unbridled decadence. 

Sleek finishes, lustrous tones, and animalistic patterning throughout wink to retro-futurism. “The key was to marry opposing elements with a touch of excess,” Farmerie continues. Seas of marble, particularly on the checkerboard flooring and cladding the nine-seat bar, lend a buoyant contrast to cane seating and custom amber glass chandeliers. Ditto for the rosewood tabletops and rattan-paneled ceiling, which establish a distinctly Southeast Asian feel. 

Farmerie and Stillman liken the ‘80s-inspired mélange to the “organized chaos” synonymous with the city’s downtown arts scene at the time. On that note, sprinkled throughout are canvases by Jordy Kerwick and Melissa Monroe, two artists who channel the era’s neo-expressionism. “It seemed important to use similar attitudes toward art that restaurants like Mr. Chow and Max’s Kansas City did,” Farmerie says. “Less gallery-style and more iconic.”

After dinner and a few Thai Iced Coffee Affogatos, pop by the semi-secret front room for the final leg of the Twin Tails experience. “It’s completely bejeweled in vertical slivers of amber mirror,” Farmerie says, “like sitting in a perfume bottle.” Bathed in red lighting that flickers off floor-to-ceiling mirrors, the glitzy detour may make you forget there’s an H&M in the building. 

Below, see more images of the restaurant.