The two most closely watched openings on Hudson Street this fall come from chefs whose reputations rest on tasting menus. Neither chef brought one to the West Village. Daniel Humm, the chef behind Eleven Madison Park, opened an à la carte restaurant at 435 Hudson on October 10. Seventeen days earlier, on September 23, Austin Johnson, formerly executive chef of Tribeca's One White Street, opened a market and cafe at 569 Hudson that is open until 8 p.m.
Between those two addresses, Hudson Street has filled up with places built for repeat visits on ordinary weeknights. This fall's prix fixe opened a block west, on Charles Street.
435 Hudson: Eleven Madison Park's Team, Ordered by the Plate
Humm took over the 7,731-square-foot space between Leroy and Morton Streets that En Japanese Brasserie occupied for two decades. En's last service was December 22, 2024, according to Eater NY.
Humm told Resy that this is the first restaurant he has created "entirely from the ground up," and that "even before the restaurant had a name, I knew I wanted it to be a place people would want to return to often." The format follows from that aim. Eleven Madison Park is built around a seasonal tasting menu. Humm's menu is à la carte and calls itself modern American. It changes with what comes in from Magic Farms, which also supplies Eleven Madison Park, and from the farmers market.
The kitchen, led by executive chef and managing partner Dmitri Magi, cooks much of the menu in a tall wood-fired oven or over a charcoal grill. Dishes in Resy's preview of the opening menu include:
- Rigatoni with a pomodoro sauce the team says took 10 trials to get right
- Eggplant Milanese with green tomato and cucumber
- Charcoal-grilled branzino sourced from Spain
- Brigette's roasted chicken for two, named for Humm's mother, with brioche and Parmesan under the skin
- The caviar bagel, a small bagel-shaped milk bread topped with osetra
- A milk soft-serve sundae with buckwheat honey from Andrew's Honey and fresh honeycomb
The building is set up for neighbors as much as for big occasions. There is a 90-seat dining room for the full menu, a bar for a quick drink, and a lounge across the way for a nightcap. Reservations open at noon three weeks ahead. Resy reports there will be some walk-in availability, particularly at the bar. A martini cart offers three versions of the Humm Martini, and the wine list runs to nearly 80 pages. Artwork by Francesco Clemente and Rashid Johnson fills a space redesigned by Pierre Yovanovitch.
Two practical details are still unsettled in the opening week. Individual dish prices had not been published as of October 9. Resy's own pages also list slightly different hours. Every version has dinner starting at 5 p.m., but they differ on whether Friday and Saturday service runs past 10.
569 Hudson: The Tasting-Menu Chef Who Built a Grocery Instead
At West 11th Street, H. Valley takes the same idea further. Johnson ran the kitchen at One White Street, a formerly Michelin-starred restaurant, along with its next-door sibling Rigor Hill Market. At H. Valley he has swapped tasting menus and late nights for 2,500 square feet of prepared food and local provisions, as Eater NY reported at the September 23 opening. Eater also reported that Johnson set hours that let him finish around 8:30 p.m.
The operator matters on this block. H. Valley comes from Eytan Sugarman's Hudson Street Hospitality, the group behind Made in New York Pizza and the White Horse Tavern. It is built around the stops of a household's day:
- Morning: coffee, pastries and bread from head baker Grayson Claes, a bacon, egg and cheese on a biscuit, and a weekend omelet bar carried over from Rigor Hill.
- Lunch: three hot and three cold sandwiches, including turkey with honey mustard, pickled apple slaw and goat cheese on honey-oat sourdough.
- Dinner: refrigerators and freezers stocked with prepared meals, ready-to-cook meats, sauces, pastas and dips.
- Kids: a separate children's fridge with mac and cheese, baked fish sticks, chicken Parm cutlets and turkey meatballs to heat at home.
- Dogs: a house-made dog food called Dion's Diet, made with Hudson Valley trout, chicken, duck and vegetables.
"The dogs are customers, too," Johnson told Eater NY. The same report says to expect prices well above the average corner grocer's. It also notes that private dinners, visiting chefs, pop-ups and a larger dining program are planned for later this year. For now, café seating is limited. The format is take-home first, a full dining room second.
626 Hudson: A Return That Set the Tone in July
The everyday turn on Hudson started before Humm and Johnson arrived. On July 31, Mary's Fish Camp reopened at a new address, 626 Hudson Street at Jane Street. The original Mary's had closed in 2024 after 20 years. According to Eater NY's August openings roundup, it opened for dinner only, and lunch began on Sunday, August 9. A seafood restaurant serving both lunch and dinner is the same kind of place as the two fall openings, one built for regulars rather than for a single big night.
The same summer brought Bar Etienne to 44 Bedford Street at Leroy, a block east of Humm. It's from the team whose bar history includes Bar Valentina and Employees Only, and it took over the former Bandits space with chocolate Negronis, tomato martinis, steak au poivre and a French onion grilled cheese.
Where the Tasting Menu Went
The neighborhood's newest prix fixe opened just off Hudson. Legion opened on Saturday, September 12, at 140 Charles Street at Greenwich Street. Its menu draws mostly on Charleston and New Orleans, where partner Truman Parsons spent much of his childhood. Diners can order à la carte or choose a $155 tasting menu. Dishes include grilled bay scallops with country ham XO, trout with pecan-brown butter, and angel biscuits baked to order and glazed with rose honey.
At least one Hudson Street operator opened his newest restaurant on a side street. Chef Nuno Sousa has run Leitao, a northern Portuguese taberna on Hudson Street, since 2020. On September 15 he opened Galo, a 66-seat adega-style restaurant at 142 West 10th Street near Waverly Place. Galo serves arroz, petiscos and large-format surf-and-turf mains, and it lists more than 100 wines. Leitao kept its Hudson Street address.
A Walk Down Hudson, North to South
This fall's additions line up along one walk:
- Mary's Fish Camp, 626 Hudson Street at Jane Street. Lunch and dinner since August.
- H. Valley, 569 Hudson Street at West 11th Street. Breakfast through early evening, with dinner to take home.
- Legion, 140 Charles Street at Greenwich Street, one block west. The tasting-menu option.
- Humm, 435 Hudson Street between Leroy and Morton Streets. Bar walk-ins or a reserved table.
- Bar Etienne, 44 Bedford Street at Leroy Street, one block east.
Two nearby addresses are still unconfirmed. Bar à Part, a wine bar and café at 72 Bedford Street, announced a September 28 opening, and Ondîne at 63 Bedford Street targeted mid-September. Neither had a confirmed opening in the coverage reviewed for this piece.
The river side of Hudson has its own fall dates. Hudson River Park's calendar lists Pier 40 Wetlab Look-ins on October 13 and 14 from 3 to 6 p.m. and on October 17 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus a Release of the Fishes on October 28 from 3 to 6 p.m. The park's BULBTOBERFest volunteer planting runs October 24 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
At The Duck Kirsch Team, we follow Hudson Street's storefronts block by block, from 626 down to 435, as part of advising West Village clients on how each part of the corridor fits the way they live. If you're weighing a move near Hudson or reconsidering a home you already own here, we invite you to Schedule a Private Consultation.
