Visiting the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City is even more inviting this year with the opening of Frenchette Bakery at the Whitney. The museum’s two new food and beverage venues, designed by New York architecture firm Modellus Novus, bring bright, thoughtful design to complement the galleries and offer visitors more dining choices for breakfast and lunch.
Frenchette Bakery, which debuted its first location in TriBeCa in 2020, now operates a branch in the Whitney’s redesigned ground-floor restaurant. The bakery provides take-out breakfast and lunch options—boulangerie items, viennoiserie, sandwiches, pizz’ette, and beverages—and also offers sit-down service for guests who prefer to dine on site.
© Photo by Adrian Gaut / Courtesy of Modellus Novus
In addition to the ground-floor bakery, the Whitney has refreshed its eighth-floor café, where the Frenchette team has transformed the former Studio Bar. Both culinary spaces reflect the museum’s commitment to contemporary art: each has been paired with significant, newly commissioned artwork. In late 2023, Rashid Johnson’s installation was installed on the ground floor, and the redesigned eighth-floor dining area now features work by Dyani White Hawk.
“The bakery and cafe will be a welcoming, approachable neighborhood destination and gathering space open to Museum visitors and non-visitors alike,” said Amy Roth, co–chief operating officer of the Whitney Museum. “Anyone can stop by for baked goods, coffee, or a snack to enjoy on the Whitney’s steps, the nearby High Line, or Hudson River Park, or linger and recharge over a meal. We are proud to bring this exciting new addition to the community and to the Museum. We have the ideal partner in the Frenchette team, whose philosophies and mission are aligned with ours, to help forge new connections between the Whitney and the neighborhood.”
© Photo by Adrian Gaut / Courtesy of Modellus Novus
Rashid Johnson’s large indoor-outdoor installation, New Poetry, is visible from the bakery as patrons order coffee or sandwiches. The piece—a sweeping black steel sculpture with shelves holding books, ceramics, monitors playing films, lights, and plants—extends through the ground-floor bakery and continues past the restaurant walls into the exterior space in front of the museum.
On the eighth floor, Dyani White Hawk’s installation Nourish draws on her Wopila | Lineage series (first presented at the 2022 Whitney Biennial) and her Quiet Strength series. Nourish marks a new exploration for the artist in the medium of ceramic tile and offers a contemplative backdrop for the dining environment.
Modellus Novus brought its experience designing cultural and hospitality interiors—projects such as Lincoln Center’s restaurant Tatiana informed their approach—to both dining areas. The firm aimed to blur the lines between interior and exterior, creating connections between diners and the surrounding neighborhood while preserving the Whitney’s open-plan concept originally envisioned by architect Renzo Piano. Piano collaborated with the artists to ensure the spaces feel welcoming and supportive of conversation around the works on view.
© Photo by Adrian Gaut / Courtesy of Modellus Novus
“For both the museum’s ground-floor and eighth-floor dining spaces, our aim is to create holistic, unified environments that center the artists and their work while offering guests serene spaces to enjoy the museum’s enriched culinary offerings,” said Jonathan Garnett, partner and creative director at Modellus Novus. The result is a pair of welcoming, art-forward dining destinations that enhance the Whitney experience for visitors and neighborhood residents alike.