M. Wells Opens Rooftop Bar at MoMA PS1

M. Wells Rooftop Garden at MoMA PS1, Queens. Photo: via MoMA PS1 Facebook page.

MoMA PS1‘s popular M. Wells Dinette, the cafeteria-style eatery on the museum’s first floor, has opened a second location of sorts at the Long Island City museum, with a new roof bar and garden, reports Tastoria Queens.

As one might expect, the rooftop offers spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline to the west, with Queens stretching out to the east. “It’s a beautiful place, and one with great history,” said M. Wells co-founder Sarah Obraitis in an email to Gallerist . “There’s a corner room with a 1976 Richard Serra and a Julian Schnabel etched into the arched ceiling.

The space is also home to some unexpected greenery, as it doubles as an herb and vegetable garden, a project by artist Julia Sherman and urban farmer Camilla Hammer, who informally provide herbs and greens to the Dinette.

Among the unusual greens sprouting up on the roof are salad burnet, savory, saltwort, and epazote. The garden has a new irrigation system, and uses reused cocoa nib shell mulch sourced from the nearby Mast Brothers chocolate company.

This is not the first time that the museum’s roof has been open to the public, as it has been used as an exhibition space in the past. The newly re-purposed space boasts a bar cart, and tables and chairs for guests to sit while enjoying beer and wine along with cocktail snacks prepared at the restaurant downstairs.

“Our menu perpetually changes, with lots of pastries and soon savory waffles, jars of seafood, etc.,” Obraitis added. The museum plans to keep the rooftop bar, which sounds perfect for summer, open through the fall for as long as the weather allows.


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