Dining Near Cultural Institutions - Freemans New Museum

Dining Near Cultural Institutions - Freemans New Museum

J.G. Melon
1291 Third Ave., 212-744-0585, Upper East Side,
Manhattan
Upper East Side ladies in big sunglasses. Young
dudes with baseball caps worn backward.

Businessmen on cell phones talking real estate
deals and child support payments. Have any of
these people just come from an exhibition at the
nearbyWhitney Museum of American Art?
Probably not.

Those European hipsters with their
scarves knotted just so? Perhaps. They're all part
of the show at this circa-1972 watering hole with
one of the best burgers in town. You may even
see Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said to be a
regular. Also worth noting: the mind-boggling
array of melon-themed paintings, drawings and
tchotchkes—and a martini that's properly stirred,
not shaken, and gratifyingly poured to the brim.

J.G. Melon is a classic saloon evoking the ghosts
of John Cheever and George Plimpton, chatty and
lively, and still so popular after all these years it's
best to hit it mid-afternoon when there's no wait
for a table or bar stool.

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