Chambers – Tribeca's wine room grown into its own kitchen

At 94 Chambers Street in Tribeca, Chambers occupies the corner room that for eight years was home to Racines NY, the Paris-rooted wine bar that first drew New York's sommeliers downtown. Chambers is a New American restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, located at 94 Chambers Street, which opened in June 2022 as the successor to Racines NY, which had operated in the same space since 2014. Several of the former partners announced the successor restaurant in May 2022, hiring Jonathan Karis, previously chef de cuisine at Gramercy Tavern under Michael Anthony, to lead the kitchen, where he serves a seasonal menu. Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier, a partner since the Racines era, directs a wine program of more than 2,000 selections that has been a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. Chambers was part of The New York Times's 100 Best Restaurants in New York City list in 2026. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, its seasonal American cooking built to sit comfortably beside Lepeltier's list rather than compete with it.

01The room and the setting

Behind an understated Tribeca storefront, the dining room is long and lean, a long medium-sized place with bar counter seating across from the tables. The decor is minimalist, with exposed red brick walls and unfinished concrete floors, giving the space a clean, understated elegance, while colours run mostly to grey and beige accented with blond wood, which forms the back of the bench seating. Four counter seats face the open kitchen at the end of the space, and a communal table at the front encourages diners to enjoy their meals in a variety of settings. Lowered lighting and a good noise level give the place an elegant yet casual feel.

02The chef

Jonathan Karis was previously chef de cuisine at Gramercy Tavern under Michael Anthony before, as the restaurant's own telling has it, meeting Pascaline Lepeltier and Jared David through a mutual friend and joining their team as Executive Chef and Partner at Chambers. Owning a business had long been a dream of his, and the opportunity let him step into a leadership role while developing a menu based on his previous experience cooking in seasonal kitchens. Two dishes have stayed on the menu since opening: veal sweetbreads with Tokyo turnips and garlic chives, and a Snowdance Farm chicken with spinach, sherry and thyme, which are signatures built from the restaurant's network of farmers.

Insider tip

Dinner Mon–Thu 5:30–9:30pm, Fri 5:30–10pm, as published August 2025.

03The cooking

The menu is printed in two movements, first and then, plus a short list of sides, and changes with the market. A first course might be hiramasa with jicama and serrano, or badger flame beets with nduja, pine nuts and St. Stephen cheese, ahead of New Caledonia blue prawns with house pickles and chile. Mains run from housemade rigatoni with kabocha and habanada to steelhead trout with chanterelles and pole beans, with heritage pork tenderloin finished with peekytoe crab, Granny Smith apple and dill. Dinner opens, at no charge, with a sesame pizza bianca from the kitchen.

For two, there is a dry-aged ribeye served with corbaci pepper and Bayley Hazen Blue butter and horseradish. Among the sides, sprouting cauliflower is dressed in tahini and cranberry beans arrive with Calabrian chile — small plates built, deliberately, to keep pace with whatever is being poured at the next table.

04Wine and drinks

The wine list is the reason many New Yorkers walk through the door. Built by Pascaline Lepeltier, who has assembled a 2,000-bottle list of mostly biodynamic, organic, and natural wines that manages to be both exploratory and approachable, it has made the restaurant a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. Fellow partner David Lillie, who co-owns Chambers Street Wines one block west, was part of Racines before it closed in 2021 and remains on the Chambers team. Wine & Spirits magazine put the appeal down to the gentle pricing of a distinctly ambitious list and the team's goal to create a neighborhood vibe.

05The neighbourhood

Tribeca and its northern neighbour SoHo were once the frontier for New York's artists, who found an affinity between their work and the iron, brick and wood of downtown Manhattan's old manufacturing buildings, and Chambers sits inside that same fabric of converted loft space on a street still named for the old municipal buildings nearby. The restaurant is within two blocks of the Chambers Street, World Trade, Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall stations, served by the A, C, E, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, J, Z, N and R lines.

06When to go and booking

As published by Time Out in August 2025, drinks run Monday to Friday from 5:30pm until last call, given when the last dining party moves on to dessert, while dinner is served Monday to Thursday from 5:30 to 9:30pm and Friday from 5:30 to 10pm. The MICHELIN Guide lists it under its special-occasion price band, and the counter facing the open kitchen is the simplest way to eat without booking ahead. With a place on The New York Times's 100 Best Restaurants in New York City list in 2026, reserving a table in the main room is the safer plan for a Friday night.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.