Overview
New York on Tap listed this bar without a review.
History
The hotel closed; the Monkey Bar didn't
Eater called the Monkey Bar legendary when it closed for an overhaul in March 20071. It had been built in 1936 as part of the luxurious Hotel Elysee2.
Then came Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair and an owner of the Waverly Inn in Greenwich Village, who bought it with partners, the hotelier Jeff Klein among them, and gave it a full restoration2, 3.
When the Hotel Elysee closed in mid-2025 for a major renovation and repositioning, the Monkey Bar stayed open through the works4. The hotel's site still promises a new chapter, coming in fall 2026, while the restaurant's own site calls it the heartbeat of Midtown dining5, 6.
Sources
Researched October 2026.