After a fleeting, but lovely season as Park Avenue Summer, the restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has undergone a remarkable transition to Park Avenue Autumn. The seasonal premise of the restaurant is evident in each aspect of its physical design, cuisine, and beverage program. Talented young chef Craig Koketsu (Quality Meats) created the autumn-inspired menu with contemporary classic dishes. The menu's focus evolved from showcasing summer's most vibrant flavors at their freshest, to taking autumn's harvest and featuring it with diverse techniques, like roasting and braising. Richard Leach, James Beard award winner will be executive pastry chef with a stable of autumn confections that delight for their concentrated flavors and stunning presentations.

The team behind midtown rustic American restaurant Quality Meats collaborated to create Park Avenue Autumn. Restaurateur Michael Stillman joins forces with award-winning design firm AvroKO (Public, Stanton Social) on the concept and all aspects of architecture, design, and graphics of the new restaurant.

The physical design of Park Avenue reflects a space with a sense of discovery, rather than stereotypical physical manifestations of a "season." This led the design team in part to Captain James Cook’s explorative travels as a loose design reference. They looked at the regions he had visited in each of his major expeditions as a way of framing each season.

Autumn in particular channels the Pacific Northwest, envisioned through a classic, naturalist’s lens, and then reinterpreted with a modernist’s sensibilities. The surfaces and materials are woody and warm, leaning more heavily to nautical features. Hides are used as the backdrop to custom lathed lens installations, walnut veneer and mirror stripe the floor-to-ceiling wall panels, cocoa leather mesh is set into the window niches and over 250 copper clasped rope segments make-up a the central ceiling plane.

Just like crisp, refreshing Autumn in New York, Park Avenue Autumn is here for just a short time. In late November, the restaurant will close its doors to make way for Park Avenue Winter.