From the Grill
Smoked Short Rib Burger
$ 24
Welcome to
Vespera Restaurant & Wine Bar
14 Perry Street, West Village, New York
✦
Vespera Restaurant
A Few Words About Us
Vespera opened in the spring of 1998 with twelve tables, one wood oven, and a wine list Elena typed out on a Tuesday night. The room has grown since then. The idea has not.
We cook the kind of food we want to eat on our night off, and we pour wines from growers we actually know. Nothing on the plate is there to impress a camera. It is there because it tastes right, tonight, in this room, with this light.
Tom & Elena Carver
Founders
Twenty Seven Years at the Fire
The Chef's Menu
✦
Every season Adrian sits down with the market list and rewrites the menu from scratch. Some dishes survive the cut. Most do not. These three have earned their place at the table, and the regulars would riot if any of them left.
Chef Recommends
“We came in for one bottle of Barolo and stayed until they stacked the chairs. Nobody rushed us, nobody hovered. That was four years ago, and we still have not found a better room in the city.”
Rachel Donovan
Regular since 2021
Opening Hours
✦
Lunch
Wed to Sun
12:00 to 15:00
Dinner
Tue to Sun
17:30 to 23:00
Wine Bar
Tue to Sun
Until Late
Closed Mondays. The kitchen takes its last orders forty five minutes before we lock the door.
First Class, Without the Fuss
Our Features
✦
01
Ingredients First
Produce arrives six mornings a week from growers we visit ourselves. The menu bends around whatever shows up, not the other way around.
02
Cooked Over Fire
The grill runs on oak and apple wood. Most of the menu passes over it at some point, and the ones that do not still taste like the room.
03
A Real Cellar
Three hundred bottles deep, heavy on Burgundy, Piedmont and the Rhone. Tell Daniel what you like to drink and he will take it from there.
The Kitchen
Written Every Morning, Cooked Tonight
The Cellar
Three Hundred Bottles Deep
The Room
Forty Four Seats and No Rush
Food & Wine
The Menu Book
✦
Whipped Ricotta Toast
$14Grilled sourdough, hot honey, thyme from the window boxes
Steak Tartare
$21Hand cut sirloin, cured egg yolk, rye crisps, caper berries
Roasted Beets
$16Goat cheese, pistachio, burnt orange, mint
Hand Rolled Cavatelli
$28Fennel sausage, broccolini, calabrian chili, pecorino
Dry Aged Ribeye
$56Forty five days on the bone, bone marrow butter, watercress
Whole Branzino
$48Grilled over vine cuttings, lemon, salsa verde, for two
Duck Breast
$38Cherry mostarda, roasted parsnip, jus from the trim
Wood Oven Moussaka
$29Eggplant, lamb shoulder, béchamel, twelve minutes in the oven
The Room in Motion
Watch Our Video
Our Experts
Meet the Team
✦
Adrian Voss
Executive Chef
Ran the grill at two Michelin rooms before he came home to ours.
Marta Silva
Pastry Chef
Keeps a sourdough starter alive that is older than the restaurant.
Daniel Okafor
Head Sommelier
Would rather pour you something odd you love than something famous.
Vespera Wine Bar
Wine Bar Menu
✦
Aurora Montepulciano 2021
Abruzzo, Italy
Glass $13Bottle $48
Clos de la Colline 2022
Loire, France
Glass $14Bottle $52
Finca Almadén 2018
Rioja, Spain
Glass $15Bottle $56
Weingut Halbach 2023
Mosel, Germany
Glass $14Bottle $50
The by the glass list changes every week. Half bottles are always open for people driving home. See the whole list.
Our Services
What We Do
✦
The Grill
Oak and apple wood, forty five day dry aging, and a chef who grew up on steakhouses.
From the Sea
Whole fish grilled over vine cuttings, day boat scallops, and a raw bar on weekends.
Handmade Pasta
Rolled every afternoon at the marble counter by the window. Watch for the cavatelli.
Pastry & Desserts
Marta's section. The Basque cheesecake has its own regulars at this point.
Coffee & Amaro
Espresso from a roaster four blocks away, and thirty odd bottles of amaro to end on.
Private Events
The back room seats twenty four under the cellar arches. Rehearsal dinners welcome.
A Few Things the Room Has Picked Up
In Good Company
Tonight at the Counter
Dry Aged Ribeye, Bone Marrow Butter
$56per plate
Twelve of them a night, cut at five, gone by ten. Ask when you sit down.
Reservations
Make A Reservation
Tables for two and four open up most nights. For the counter seats, walk in and take your chances. For parties of seven or more, call us and we will make room.
Call Us Directly+1 212 555 0184
Find Us At14 Perry Street, West Village, New York, NY 10014