{"id":407432,"date":"2026-04-23T20:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/407432\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:48:09","slug":"inside-simon-kims-550-madison-restaurant-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/407432\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Simon Kim’s 550 Madison Restaurant Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor restaurateur Simon Kim, opening 550 Madison marks a massive homecoming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI came from Korea when I was 13 years old, and always wanted to open my own restaurant. Fast forward, here we are, opening 550 Madison,\u201d says Kim, who opened the first location of his Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse Cote nine years ago in NoMad, and has since expanded the concept to locations in Miami, Las Vegas and Singapore. Now, he\u2019s bringing it all back to where it matters the most: New York<\/a> City. \u201cThis is a love letter to New York<\/a>,\u201d Kim adds.\u00a0\u201cThe city that gave me everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA little more than five years ago, Kim\u2019s Gracious Hospitality Management was enlisted to open three dining concepts within the Midtown Philip Johnson-designed building, which Kim first encountered as a teenager visiting the city with his family, when it was the Sony Tower. On the first floor is Bar Chimera, a lounge with three distinct bar concepts; downstairs is a new location of Cote; and upstairs is Sushi Yoshitake, an intimate sushi bar that will open later this year inspired by Ginza meets Gotham City. Each space was designed in collaboration with David Rockwell.<\/p>\n

\n\tBar Chimera, located on the ground floor, features 60-foot ceilings and windows overlooking Madison Avenue. But the centerpiece of the room\u2019s design is a live pine tree stretching toward the ceiling, surrounded by a basin of water. The pine tree is the national tree of Korea, although the tree at 550 Madison is an American pine, which for Kim symbolizes New York\u2019s myriad identities. High up on an interior wall, they installed a neon sign by artist Martin Creed with a message: \u201cDon\u2019t Worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Bar<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBar Chimera<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Gary He<\/p>\n

\n\tOptions at Bar Chimera include a martini bar, whiskey bar, and a wine and Champagne bar. The martini bar features proprietary water, distilled and remineralized in the city exclusively for Bar Chimera. The whiskey bar offers a collection of rare bottles from around the world, with a focus on American and Japanese bottles. Notable choices include a 1970s Presidential select Suntory, and an Old Fashioned made with the top-tier Pappy Van Winkle. A wine bar features over 40 pours by the glass, for moments spanning casual meetups to more indulgent occasions.\u00a0 A Madeira wall features vintages dating back to 1835, a unique way for visitors to mark special milestone years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aIt\u2019s been so long since Midtown had something really fun,\u201d says Kim, describing the appeal of bringing a dining concept to a more corporate part of town. \u201cThis is not just another place where you finish work and have gatherings of decent things. Whether it\u2019s a martini, whether it\u2019s whiskey, we want to go all the way in \u2014 but we don\u2019t take ourselves too seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe food<\/a> menu at Bar Chimera was designed as an answer to the question: \u201c\u200aWhat do I want to eat while I\u2019m drinking?\u201d Dishes include a burger, octopus fritters, foie gras, Korean salt bread, and chicken nuggets with caviar \u2014 a trademark of Kim\u2019s other popular New York restaurant, Coqodaq<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dining<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDining at Cote.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Gary He<\/p>\n

\n\tKim makes his way down a staircase to the cellar level, where guests arrive in Cote\u2019s red-lit clubby lounge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u200a\u201dIf upstairs is a very polite Midtown bar where you can do business, this is where you come for fun,\u201d says Kim. \u201cDrink and listen to music, people-watch, and interact.\u201d Cote\u2019s front lounge features a DJ booth and a bar with lounge seating, the restaurant\u2019s lit-up meat locker serving as a backdrop.<\/p>\n

\n\tA blue-lit hallway \u201cportal\u201d leads to the main dining room \u2014 Kim describes the experience as akin to arriving in El Dorado \u2014 where diners are surrounded by live greenery and tables with custom smokeless grills. A private dining room is flexible to accommodate seated dinners or cocktail parties, with a screen queued up for karaoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aOur competition is the digital world,\u201d says Kim. \u201cWhen it\u2019s so stimulating, the real world seems so mundane. And so we wanted to create a fully immersive experience \u2014 I\u2019m gonna take you away from your phone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLater this year, Kim will open the property\u2019s third restaurant project, Sushi Yoshitake, led by three-Michelin-star chef Masahiro Yoshitake. While Cote is dark and sultry, the upper-level sushi bar, outfitted in blond wood, offers a softer environment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aYou know what Midtown people want? Surf and turf,\u201d says Kim. \u201cSurf is a three-Michelin-star sushi chef from Japan, and turf is a one-Michelin-star Korean steakhouse,\u201d he adds. \u201c\u200aI feel like that is New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd New Yorkers love to keep their options open \u2014 even better if they don\u2019t have to go very far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aYou had a martini down there, you came up [here] and finish this really extravagant sushi,\u201d says Kim, imagining a hypothetical night out at 550 Madison as he peers down at Bar Chimera from inside Sushi Yoshitake. \u201cAnd then you say, you know what? Let\u2019s have one more drink. And then we go take the elevator down to that red light, where the DJ is pumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Simon<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSimon Kim at Bar Chimera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Clemens Kois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For restaurateur Simon Kim, opening 550 Madison marks a massive homecoming. \u201cI came from Korea when I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,453,85,46,1886],"class_list":["post-407432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-food","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}