New Restaurant Brings Old New York to Midtown

MIDTOWN, NY — A new bar in Midtown looks to bring drinkers and diners back to the halcyon days when Madison Avenue was the center of the advertising world.

Which makes sense since its owner, Ryan McKenzie, founded a creative firm for food and hospitality clients.

McKenzie founded Patent Pending, a hit speakeasy bar and cafe, back in 2018, and left his firm in 2019 to focus full time on running hospitality businesses, which now includes seeyamañana, and Rezdôra.

Agency of Record, McKenzie's latest venture, now looks to directly cite his creative roots just steps from the iconic Madison Avenue advertising corridor.

The restaurant and craft cocktail bar — located inside the historic Renwick Hotel, once home to notable mid-century writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck — looks to fuse a stylish ambiance with mid-century flair.

Expect lots of rich mahogany tones, playful fringe, leather accents, dark wood and brass, and intimate mood lighting.

The menu, crafted by Consulting Chef Edward Carew, formerly of Gramercy Tavern, Craft and Ace Hotels, includes creative twits on classics, like duck fat fries, grilled prawns, lobster cocktail, french onion burger, Japanese Karaage-style friend chicken and veggie shawarma made from lion's mane, grilled veggies, harissa yogurt and flatbread.

Cocktails are cheekily named after advertising terms, like The A+B test (blanco tequila, aged cachaca, sotol, thai chili, lychee, lime), The Four Ps (Venezuelan, Jamaican, Mexican, Haitian rums, pistachio, almond, turmeric, lemon) and Sex Sells (Japanese vodka, vanilla, passionfruit, orgeat, lemon).

Guests looking for even more intimacy and vintage charm are in luck: Agency of Record has a private dining room that can be rented out, complete with a vintage martini cart and a private bartender.

Agency of Record can be found in the Renwick Hotel at 118 East 40th St., near Lexington Avenue, and will open on Nov. 10.