Bar CC, the Crane Club Team's New Cocktail Bar in West Chelsea
Bar CC opened on Friday, September 25, 2026, at 85 Tenth Avenue, on the corner of 16th Street in West Chelsea. It comes from the team behind Crane Club: co-owners Jeff Katz and chef Melissa Rodriguez, who opened that restaurant with Tao Group Hospitality in 2024, and Harrison Ginsberg, who has joined them as a partner to run the drinks. The bar takes over the former Mel's space in the 85 Tenth building.
Katz sees Bar CC as somewhere to come for drinks rather than for dinner, and the layout follows from that. The front of the house is a 25-seat bar. Behind it are two rooms for private events.
Velvet, walnut and a disco ball
Laseu Studio, which also designed Crane Club, did the interiors in partnership with Tao Group Hospitality, drawing on Art Deco and midcentury design. The materials are walnut millwork, velvet upholstery and brass, and the light comes from hand-blown Venetian sconces and fringed chandeliers. In the front room a stone-topped bar runs under a ceiling hung with tiered chandeliers, with red drapery along one wall and pink velvet armchairs at small tables.
The smaller of the two private rooms is lined with wine storage, with lantern pendants overhead and armchairs in patterned upholstery around a single table. The back room is the larger one: velvet banquettes and grey fringed armchairs line both walls beneath a tiered ring chandelier with a mirrored disco ball at its centre.
The drinks
Ginsberg helped open Crown Shy, Saga and Overstory, the downtown restaurants Katz co-founded. At Bar CC his cocktails lean lighter and brighter. He has said he wants to balance unusual ideas with something recognizable, and that every drink has to be delicious first. Fruit or Vegetable? is a Paloma-style drink of tequila, mezcal and raicilla, garnished with a cherry tomato infused with passion fruit cordial. The CC Martini is made with vodka, black peppercorn and olive brine, and is meant to go with the kitchen's chips and caviar. The list also includes the Mandarino and a Toasted Almond Sour.
The wine list runs to more than 1,000 bottles, with many poured by the glass. It is overseen by Abe Zarate, Crane Club's wine director.
The food
Rodriguez, a Michelin-starred chef, has kept the menu to a short list of seasonal small plates so the focus stays on the cocktails and the wine. It includes a Baby Burger, Chicken Medianoche, a wood-roasted Trumpet Mushroom, watermelon, In Carrozza and Fancy Chips with osetra caviar, and there is an ice cream sandwich to finish.
Visit
Bar CC is at 85 10th Avenue (at 16th Street), New York, NY 10011. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm to 1am and closed Sunday and Monday. A few tables can be reserved each night; most are held for walk-ins.
