The Verdict
THE POOL is the Seagram Building's Pool Room — the space in the Mies van der Rohe building whose 40-foot square travertine pool and the seasonal interior plantings (changed four times yearly) created what Philip Johnson described as the most beautiful restaurant room in America. The Major Food Group operates both the Pool and its companion The Grill, applying the same contemporary American culinary standard to a space whose architectural ambition requires a kitchen whose quality matches it.
The contemporary American menu at The Pool communicates the Major Food Group's understanding of what the Pool Room requires: elegant preparations whose visual sophistication matches the room's architectural precision, seasonal sourcing that communicates genuine quality, and the service that a Philip Johnson-designed dining room demands from the team operating within it.
One Michelin star and the 40-foot travertine pool whose marble surface and the seasonal trees create the most visually extraordinary interior in Midtown — a room whose architectural significance is independent of the food's quality but whose Michelin recognition confirms the kitchen's genuine ambition. For the occasion where the most architecturally significant available Midtown dining experience is the requirement, The Pool provides it.
Why It Works for Impressing Clients
The Pool Room's 40-foot travertine pool and the Philip Johnson interior communicate to any client with knowledge of American architecture that the host has chosen the most historically significant dining room available in Midtown. The Michelin star confirms the food. The room communicates everything else.
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