Museum Mile

The upper east side is home to a large clutch of museums, but these three facing Fifth Avenue make an excellent all-day museum outing, a great plan for a rainy day. Try to have lunch at Neue Galerie's Café Sabarsky.

Solomon Guggenheim Museum (5th Ave. at 89th St.)
$18 adults; $15 seniors 65+
Daily 10:00a-5:45p (except late Sat closing 7:45p)
Spend some time outside to marvel at the corkscrew spiral architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.



Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, this museum offers landmark works of modern art. The distinctive building, Frank Lloyd Wright's last major work, opened in October, 1959, six months after the architect’s death; Wright labored over the project for 15 years, and it was already "retro modern" when finally built, considering that construction took place at the same time as Lincoln Center.
The museum contains a renowned collection of impressionist, post-impressionist, modern and contemporary art. Internally, the viewing gallery forms a gentle spiral from the main level up to the top of the building, which is wider than the bottom, an unusual feature. Paintings are displayed along the walls of the spiral and also in exhibition space found at annex levels along the way. In 1992, the building was supplemented by an adjoining rectangular tower, taller than the original spiral (see photo at top of post). A large circular skylight illuminates the central atrium of the main building, casting deep shadows onto the exhibit areas, unfortunately. Many of the living artists represented in the museum's collection objected to having their works illuminated by artificial light. At the time of this post, much of the museum is closed to the public as a major retrospective on the works of Frank Lloyd Wright is being installed.


Dining options include the just-opened restaurant/bar simply called “The Wright.”
The Wright Restaurant (lunch 11:30a-3:30p, dinner 5:30p-11:00p; Sunday brunch 11:00a-5:00p)
The Wright Bar (appetizers/sandwiches 11:30a-5:00p)
Café 3 (on third floor) sandwiches/pastries with a view of Central Park (10:30a-3:00p)


Neue Galerie (5th ave. at 86th St.)
Austrian & German art circa 1900
$15 Adults; $10 seniors 65+; Building is the former home of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III
11:00a-6:00p (closed Tue/Wed) Complimentary coat check


Early 20th century Austrian paintings and decorative art (2nd floor). Be sure to view Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer
Early 20th century German art (third floor)

Café Sabarsky Thu-Fri-Sat-Sun 9:00a-9:00p; Mon &Wed 9:00a-6:00p (separate entrance)
Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner “Echt Viennese” menu; exceptional pastries


Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Ave. at 82nd St.)
A pay-what-you-wish museum (but $20 per adult recommended). If you can visit only one New York City Museum, this is the one that can't be missed.

Fri/Sat: 9:30a–9:00p (cafeteria open 11:30a-7:00p)
Sun: 9:30a–5:30p (cafeteria open 11:30a-4:30p)
Mon holidays (such as MLK Day): 9:30a–5:30p (cafeteria open 11:30a-4:30p)


Other dining venues at the Met:
Petrie Café and Wine Bar (a la carte menu; large windows overlook Central Park)
Fri/Sat from 9:30a; last seating 8:30p
Sun 9:30a-4:30p
Daily afternoon tea begins at 2:30p ($24 per person)
Reservations (dinner & brunch only) 212-570-3964

Great Hall Balcony Bar (live classical music)
Fri/Sat only 4:00p-8:30p (last call 8:00)
Wine/beer/cocktails & appetizers

New American Wing Café
Fri/Sat 11:00a-8:30p
Sun 11:00a-4:30p
Soups/salads/sandwiches/desserts

Café Sabarsky & Neue Galerie

Café Sabarsky (inside Neue Galerie)
1048 5th Ave., corner of 86th St.
Mon/Wed 9-6; Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun 9-9; closed Tue

The Café, which bears the name of Neue Galerie co-founder Serge Sabarsky, draws its inspiration from the great Viennese cafés that served as important centers of intellectual and artistic life at the turn of the twentieth century. It is outfitted with period objects, including lighting fixtures by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos, and banquettes that are upholstered with a 1912 Otto Wagner fabric. A grand piano, which graces one corner of the Café, is used for cabaret, chamber, and classical music performances.


It’s the real deal, where patrons down Stiegl beer (from Salzburg) while perusing the pages of Die Presse and Der Standard. Others tackle a slice of Sachertorte with a melange on the side (all coffee orders are served authentically with a beaker of water). Heartier appetites are satisfied by goulash and spätzle.

Photo: Sachertorte mit Schlag

The building that houses the Neue Galerie museum and Café Sabarsky was completed in 1914 by Carrère & Hastings, also architects of the New York Public Library. It has been designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Commission and is generally considered one of the most distinguished buildings ever erected on Fifth Avenue. Commissioned by industrialist William Starr Miller, it was later occupied by society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III (Grace Graham Wilson). The family of Cornelius Vanderbilt III (universally known as Neily) was so against their marriage, that his father punished him with a paltry $500,000 inheritance, which his brother helped rectify by tossing in another $6 million after their father's death in 1899. This mansion was so much smaller than Grace and Neily's former mid-town 5th Avenue residence (77 rooms at 640 Fifth Ave., since demolished), that Grace referred to it as "the gardener's cottage." She lived in this "cottage" until her death in 1953. It was later purchased by Ronald S. Lauder (son of Estée Lauder) and Serge Sabarsky in 1994.


The glory of the museum’s collection of Austrian and German fine and decorative arts is Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) oil, silver and gold on canvas. In 2006, Lauder purchased Klimt's painting from Maria Altmann on behalf of the Neue Galerie for $135 million, at the time the most expensive painting ever sold. It has been on display at the museum since July 2006. The portrait, of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist and the hostess of a prominent Vienna salon, is considered one of the artist’s masterpieces. For years, it was the focus of a restitution battle between the Austrian government and a niece of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer, who argued that it was seized along with four other Klimt paintings by the Nazis during World War II. In January, 2006, all five paintings were awarded to the niece, Maria Altmann, then 90, who was living in Los Angeles at the time.

Neue Galerie – 212.628.6200
Hours: 11-6; Fridays until 9; Closed Tue/Wed
Museum admission: $15 incl. audio guide (students and seniors $10)

In the drawing room of her Fifth Ave. mansion at 52nd St., Grace (Mrs. Cornelius) Vanderbilt entertained en masse while her estranged husband sailed the world on his yacht; one year she hosted 30,000 guests. By the 1940s, however, the big house at 640 5th Ave. was sold, and Mrs. Vanderbilt moved to what she referred to as “the gardener’s cottage,” a 28-room mansion at 1048 Fifth at 86th Street (now the Neue Galerie/Café Sabarsky). With a staff of 18, she continued to entertain in large numbers until her death in 1953. Interesting and attractive men were, in her opinion, the key to a successful party. She kept a list of 138 eligible men broken up into categories like: “men who will dance,” “men who can lunch,” and “men who will go to the theatre but not the opera.”


Photo below: The Vanderbilt mansion photographed back in its heyday, when it served as the residence of William Starr Miller, years before Mrs. Vanderbilt lived here. The house was sold subsequently sold to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which completed important studies on the Yiddish language. Cash strapped, this organization sold the air rights above the mansion to the Adams Hotel next door on 86th Street, which was being redeveloped as a residential property, assuring some of the future owners an unobstructed view of Central Park. Ron Lauder and Serge Sabarsky bought the building in 1994.


Below: An archive photo of the room facing Fifth Avenue that now serves as the Café Sabarsky. Note the card catalog on the rear wall to the right of the fireplace and the library tables, a clear indication of the research that went on here during its days as home to the YIVO Institute.