Manuela

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Where Art and the Table Are Inseparable

On the corner of Wooster and Prince Street, in the heart of SoHo's historic cast iron district, Manuela operates on a simple but deeply held conviction: that art and life are indivisible, and that great food is not a luxury but an essential to be generously shared. The restaurant takes its name from Manuela Wirth, who co-founded the international hospitality group Artfarm with her husband Iwan Wirth. Her legendary warmth as a hostess and her passion for freshly prepared cuisine and community are the guiding spirit behind everything here.

The space itself makes a quiet argument. Diners sit at Mary Heilmann's Floating Tile Tables (2024) with Lorna Simpson's Quiet Storm (2024) in their sightline, or perch at the bar beneath Mika Rottenberg's Chandelier For Manuela (2024). Eater Magazine called the interior "wild and worth the trip alone." The design was led by Russell Sage Studio — the same practice behind Artfarm's critically acclaimed Fife Arms Hotel in Scotland — with high eco-credentials woven throughout.

The Kitchen and the Cellar

The menu responds to and celebrates American seasons. Dishes come out of an open kitchen, cooked over a wood-fired grill or in a charcoal oven, and roughly half the menu is plant-focused. The approach is honest and unpretentious: market-based produce, locally sourced, served without ceremony. On any given evening, that might mean Wellfleet oysters with rhubarb and magnolia mignonette, Long Island fluke tartare with nước chấm and pickled green strawberry, or Maryland soft shell crab sliders. The kitchen runs from lunch through dinner, with weekend brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

The wine program earned Manuela a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence in 2025 — recognition that reflects the same seriousness applied to the food. The bar offers cocktails, local beers, and a seasonal drinks menu that makes it a destination in its own right, not just a waiting room for a table.

A Neighborhood Place With a Broader Vision

Manuela is part of Artfarm's wider network of properties across the UK, Europe, and the US, but it reads entirely as a SoHo restaurant — rooted in its block, committed to its suppliers, and connected to the community around it through initiatives like Project EATS. The contemporary American cooking here is generous in spirit and grounded in place, which is exactly what the name above the door has always promised.