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The Eighth Lights Up Chelsea With a Bar That Steals the Show

The latest addition to Chelsea's nightlife scene blends high design, ritual-driven cocktails, and a bar that steals the spotlight—if it can nail the execution.

After a temporary soft opening during New York Fashion Week, The Eighth officially welcomed the public into its Chelsea digs on March 10. After visiting the cocktail-driven restaurant the week of its debut, it’s clear that The Eighth is still fine-tuning the execution of aspects of its program. Some restaurants take a beat to find their legs, and The Eighth appears to be one of them—perhaps it’s not too surprising, as The Eighth threw the gauntlet down for itself with an esoteric concept and particularly elaborate ideas for service each night.

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Julien Legeard and Valmira Gashi collaborated with Richie Romero to create The Eighth. Legeard and Gashi’s Legeard Studio has designed hospitality venues such as La Grande Boucherie, Hudson Club and Olio e Più; Romero is the nightlife veteran behind spots like 1 Oak and Up&Down.

The press release announcing The Eighth’s arrival read a bit like a creative writing major’s final essay, describing the space as “conceived as a space outside ordinary time…[its] mission is not to attempt to recreate a specific era, but the opposite. Instead, it draws from the absence of history—the moments, stories and emotions that have slipped through the cracks.”

So, what exactly does “the opposite of a specific era” look like as a restaurant? I ventured in to find out on opening night.

The second I walked inside, I was struck by the beautifully lit bar—it’s clear that The Eighth is the invention of a design team. Gashi describes that bar as “very centralized…we put the most love into the bar.” That’s evident: the backlit, alabaster stone bar glows like an altar of molten rock. The back bar radiates amber light, and a recessed box of tiny, disco-reminiscent lights casts a golden finish over everything. 

Gashi and Legeard chose two symbols for The Eighth: a snake that actually forms the number eight and represents renewal, and a moth that symbolizes attraction. “With the moth, we had the idea that this bar creates a moment of, ‘oh my God, I have to go see it’ when someone walks through the door,” Gashi says. “It’s the idea of giving in to temptation, seeing the light and going for it.”

The Eighth’s black tables, arranged around the bar, are slick and marbleized, with plush velvet seats in a deep purple hue. Chandeliers accent the bar’s warm lighting, and silver ball-chain curtains feel like a subtle nod to both Chelsea’s industrial history as well as its more hedonistic nightclub era. That ambiguity is intentional.

“We wanted to represent the different pasts Chelsea has had, from industrial to artistic, without sticking to one era—it’s all an enmeshed cloth, not one thread,” Gashi tells Observer. “It creates the notion that anyone can have their own experience, their own story here; that’s what Chelsea is.”

The Eighth’s aesthetic is what grabs you first and lingers longest during your visit. That may be why talk of it—that is, the vibe and interior—appears before any mention of dishes or beverages, both here in this story as well as in the restaurant’s own press release. The Eighth is clearly a design-driven concept, but the drinks, food, and one significant promise of this venue’s program are lacking—or perhaps still finding their way.

That promise was one of “rituals” or “ceremonies.” On The Eighth’s website, potential guests are enticed with “three ceremonial moments: 8 p.m. to awaken, 10 p.m. to indulge, and 12 a.m. to surrender.” According to Legeard, each ceremony was intended to be a different cocktail and small bite pairing to create an immersive experience and reflect the mood of the room at each time. There was much mystery around what these rituals would actually look like, which Gashi explained was intentional: “I don’t want people to know what’s coming next. People can come again and have different experiences each time.”

Or, they can have no experience vis-à-vis these ceremonies because by the time opening night rolled around, The Eighth’s team was unsure of what these rituals might actually look like. Initially intrigued primarily by these ceremonies, this writer waited eagerly for 8 p.m. to roll around, confident that a magical, borderline religious cocktail experience would take command of the room at any moment. When nothing happened by 8:30 p.m., I asked our very nice server, who explained that they were still figuring out if they were going to do all three rituals and how. Assuring us that some kind of special experiences would be on offer for guests on a regular basis, she wrangled the head bartender to give just our table a demonstration. Not quite the grandeur one may have expected from a room-wide ritual, but special cocktails were artfully presented with the drama of rolling nitrous oxide. Mezcal was paired with charred pineapple and pink peppercorn; the drink was bright, refreshing and delicious.

Other drinks show great potential for intense, vibrant flavors, but may still need some tweaking. Call Lilly sounds complex with bourbon, Lillet Blanc, black tea syrup, calamansi and rose mist, and it did smell gorgeous. But on the palate, the calamansi dominated a bit too much, resulting in something juice-like. Similarly, the tequila, Campari and Cocchi Rosa cocktail, Desert Rose, had an aroma you’d want to capture forever as a candle or incense, thanks to its additions of palo santo smoke and rose and sage vermouth. Its flavor, though, swung back into fruit punch territory. Overall, the drinks menu consists of these novel creations, plus upgraded classics like Negronis and a gin and tonic. These selections are approachable yet elevated, with elements like spices and fresh herbs, which could, in time, amount to a lovely lineup. They just need some dialing in on balance.

Ditto that on the food menu; there are hits and misses. A beet tartare was rich, earthy and just a little sweet; a classic shrimp cocktail was fresh and satisfying; and crispy purple potatoes with black garlic aioli stole the spotlight from the burger they accompanied. Perhaps the star of the entire night was a white chocolate-y semifreddo with strawberries and rose meringues—custardy and rich, balanced by the floral sweetness and strawberries’ tartness. Cucumbers with sesame oil and chili, though, felt like they needed more time to marinate in and actually absorb their dressing.

Ultimately, The Eighth shows promise and strikes a balance unique in Chelsea and New York in general: It’s glamorous, it’s chic, it’s conceptual. It’s also warm and welcoming. The “The Eighth” marquee at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 18th Street is refreshingly big and bright, unlike the more speakeasy-leaning entrance one might expect from a high-concept venue like this. The menu prices were surprisingly reasonable, with small plates costing as little as $9 or $11, well below what a Chelsea restaurant has charged in recent years. 

“Everything about The Eighth has been designed to create comfort and invitation and twist it a bit, to create this experience that will each time be different,” Gashi says. “The food and cocktails are not too showy, it’s not about, ‘look, this is on fire or that has gold leafing,’ it’s not about the trend of it to be on Instagram. We want the opposite, we want people to feel present and enjoy the moment.”

“We want people to be like, ‘wow, the staff really took care of me, I’m coming back for this, I’m coming back for that,” Legeard adds. That hospitality is noticeably at play here. Gashi and Legeard have created a sleek, sophisticated restaurant with a novel twist of approachability and comfort. Trying to accomplish both that and The Eighth’s arcane concept, though, may prove too difficult a juggling act.

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