A Ghost of the Upper East Side's Culinary Past Comes Back to Life
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When Salvador Dali walked into Hoexsters, a staple restaurant on the Upper East Side, in the late 1970s, heads would turn, voices would be hushed, and eyes would lock onto the artist. Out of all the heavy-hitting names that stepped foot into the restaurant—including Princess Grace, Elizabeth Taylor, Bill Paley, Gianni Agnelli, and Malcolm Forbes—the artist caused the most buzz. Who would expect a surrealist to be at an Uptown establishment where old-master worshippers thrive? To Bobby Shapiro, who co-owned Hoexsters with Gianni Uzielli, his presence was enough gossipy publicity; Shapiro would comp the artist's dinner every visit and Dali never paid a dime.
Unfortunately, Hoexsters didn't have the longevity of other society staple restaurants (maybe Dali should've paid), like La Côte Basque which was open from 1959 to 2004 and closed in the mid-'80s. Nearly four decades later, however, Hoexsters is getting its second chance, differentiating itself from the crisp white linens of its elegant neighbors with a vibrant and print-heavy interior.
"I wanted to channel the neighborhood's history in the new interiors while making it feel fresh," Sasha Bikoff, the interior designer responsible for the restaurant's interior facelift, tells T&C. Bikoff is best known in the interiors worlds for her ultra-maximalist approach to projects. While the new interiors of Hoexsters aren't as vibrant as some of her other creations, there is still a heavy use of prints and statement pieces. "I was thinking of the people who went here and who would go here: what their apartments look like and who designed them," she says. "I thought a lot of Billy Baldwin."
The interiors of the redone Hoexsters are best described in three rooms. The first is the bar, which is placed at the very entrance of the restaurant on Third Avenue and East 82nd Street. Was Dali's legacy imbued here? Possibly. The walls are wrapped in Pierre Frey wallpaper that illustrates a sort of psychedelic jungle where cerulean bluebirds sit atop trees with orange trunks. Blue herons stand near cobalt blue ponds, while an orange tiger, borderline neon, rests under a tree filled with hot pink berries. There are groves of ferns, too, but they closely resemble peacock feathers. The chair rail is painted black, where French bistro tables and chairs are set and the bar is made of black-and-blue marble.
The transition into the main dining room is almost like a complete switch to another restaurant and is the most obvious nod to the Upper East Side. "We wanted to make it a classic American, almost library den," Bikoff says. With its custom red plaid Scalamandre wallpaper, leather banquets, and dog-shaped lamp bases, the space recalls an interior from a Ralph Lauren ad—preppy and inviting. The hero element here is the large-scale mural, which features some of the restaurant's old-time notables: Richie Fuchs, Valerie Jennings, Dennis Kelly, Gianni Uzielli, and Bobby Shapiro.
Finally, the private dining room is a festive celestial setting outfitted in midnight blue wallpaper with classic outer space motifs (stars, sun, moon) and red banquets. A grand art-deco Murano glass chandelier is the "sun" of the room and dramatically descends from a skylight ceiling. "I wanted this space to be the ideal place for a glass of champagne," Bikoff says, "where you're drawn to look upward."
Will the interiors or the classic Americana comfort food draw in a swanky group of New Yorkers the same way Hoexsters did when it first opened? Only time will tell. "Everyone keeps saying that the Upper East Side is back and that it's cool again," Bikoff says. I wanted to be sure that I resonated with both a young and older crowd. I feel like new restaurants try to transport guests to other places, but I wanted this place to feel quintessentially New York."
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