Overview
New York on Tap listed this bar without a review.
History
Dessert first, then the whole menu
Aquavit opened in 1987, when the Swedish restaurateur Håkan Swahn set it up in a Midtown townhouse1.
Emma Bengtsson, raised near Falkenberg on Sweden's west coast, joined as pastry chef in 20101. In 2014 she stepped up to executive chef, a promotion from dessert to everything else1.
In 2019 it reopened after a redesign, and for a bar guide the headline was the new part: a more casual bar area with its own menu2.
Today it's at 65 East 55th Street, where the Michelin Guide calls it one of the city's most polished expressions of contemporary Scandinavian cooking3, 4.
Sources
Researched October 2026.