Superb American food with man-sized steaks and excellent cocktails.
The Coach House
1949–1993
American
Ownership:
Leon Lianides
Executive Chef:
Larry Terrier
John Clancy (1962)
Location:
110 Waverly Place
Literature:
Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides (1986):
“A carriage house always retains a secret memory of the business of feeding well-bred, exhausted horses. Its proportions are graceful, never ostentatious, and I have yet to see a carriage house fail to make a charming residence or restaurant. The Coach House…was the nonpareil of the breed. Its very shape was pleasant to my soul; the place exuded seriousness about food, and all the waiters looked competent enough to curry a thoroughbred if they burst from the kitchen and found themselves transported back to the days when hansoms glided across the cobblestones of Greenwich Village” (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986: 157; the characters partake in a meal at the Coach House which continues in pgs. 158-173).
Publications:
“Greenwich Village Coach House Restaurant’s Famous $3,000 Chocolate Cake Recipe: A Tale of Two Recipes from the Famed Village Eatery.” Washington Square Park Blog, December 16, 2022. [Features two conflicting recipes—from the New York Times and Bon Appétit for the Coach House’s famous chocolate cake. The original recipe was a closely guarded secret, which Lianides once priced at $3,000.]
“Gone But Not Forgotten Restaurants: Coach House.” Hungry Gerald. Blog, June 22, 2011.
Sietsema, Robert. “Our 10 Best NYC Restaurants of the Last Two Centuries.” Village Voice, January 14, 2011. [The Coach House is ranked 6th; Le Pavillon and Lutèce also make the list.]
Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 311-312.
“Its passing played on the city’s collective memory with unusual power. [The Coach House] was the culinary equivalent of the old Penn Station” (p. 311).
Grimes, William. “Coach House: Attempting a Sequel.” New York Times, May 19, 1999: F1, F8 (illustrated). [This was Grimes’s first assignment as the New York Times restaurant critic.]
Grimes, William. “Leon Lianides, 81: Opened Fine Restaurants to U.S. Cuisine.” New York Times, June 3, 1998 (illustrated).
Fabricant, Florence. “A New Restaurant Replaces a Village Landmark.” New York Times, January 28, 1998: F5.
Miller, Bryan. “An Appreciation: After 44 Years and 4 Proud Stars, Dinner Is Over at the Coach House.” New York Times, January 2, 1994: A5.
Sax, Richard. Classic Home Desserts: A Treasury of Heirloom and Contemporary Recipes from Around the World. Shelbure, Vermont: Chapters, 1994: 212. [Includes a recipe for The Coach House’s bread-and-butter pudding.]
Sheraton, Mimi. Mimi Sheraton’s Favorite New York Restaurants. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Miller, Bryan. “Restaurants: The Coach House.” New York Times, November 10, 1989: C22.
Burros, Marian. “Restaurants: American Style in the ‘Village.’” New York Times, March 23, 1984: C14.
Britchky, Seymour. “All-American: The Coach House.” New York 17, 3 (January 16, 1984): 48-51.
Katalinich, Peggy. “The Tough Calls of a Diner Turned Critic.” Newsday, February 9, 1983: C23.
Claiborne, Craig. “Memorable Re-Creations of Restaurant Favorites.” New York Times, January 26, 1983: C1 (illustrated), C6. [Features a recipe for the Coach House’s deviled crab cakes, along with an image of owner Lianides displaying the dish.]
Carter, Sylvia. “A Voice for American Cooking.” Newsday, December 29, 1982: B7 (illustrated, writer James Villas with a plate of clams and oysters at The Coach House).
Sheraton, Mimi. “New Dishes at **** Restaurants.” New York Times, November 5, 1982: C1. [The Coach House and Lutèce are included among only four New York restaurants to maintain four stars from the Times at the time of writing.]
Favorite Restaurant Recipes: 500 Unforgettable Dishes from the R.S.V.P. Column of Bon Appétit. Los Angeles: Knapp Press, 1982: 36 (recipe for The Coach House’s black bean soup), 71 (striped bass Adriatic), 89 (grilled shrimp with mustard sauce), 116 (steak au poivre), 124 (rack of lamb), 159 (cold eggplant provençale), 174 (corn sticks), 192 (bread-and-butter pudding), 199 (chocolate cake), 206 (dacquoise). [Recipes for the black bean soup and corn sticks are republished (with scans of the original cookbook pages) at Dinner is Served 1972, Blog, June 27, 2023.]
Ferretti, Fred. “When a Chef Feeds His Cooks.” New York Times, September 16, 1981: C1 (illustrated, staff meal at The Coach House).
Brass, Dick. “Critics’ Choice: The 25 Greatest Restaurants in America.” Playboy Magazine 27, 6 (June 1980). [The Coach House comes in at number 8; La Caravelle and Lutèce also make the list.]
Hazelton, Nika Standen. American Home Cooking. New York: Viking Press, 1980.
Benson & Hedges Presents Entertaining with Style: Recipes from Great American Restaurants. New York: Philip Morris, 1980. [Includes a recipe for the Coach House’s mushrooms à la Grecque, republished (with scans of the original cookbook pages) at Dinner is Served 1972, Blog, September 8, 2020.]
Beard, James, and Carl Jerome. New Recipes for the Cuisinart Food Processor. Cuisinart Cooking Club, 1978: 17. [Includes a recipe for Leon Lianide’s tarama salata, republished at BigOven.com. (There are some omissions in the reprinting: Ingredients should include 1 garlic clove and 8 slices of firm white bread soaked in water and squeezed dry).]
Greene, Gael. “The Coach House is Bullish on America.” New York 7, 7 (February 18, 1974): 84-85.
Kramer, Vivian. “Greenwich Village Cookbook.” Newsday, January 10, 1970: 8W. [Includes a recipe for The Coach House’s daiquiri pie.]
Kramer, Vivian. Greenwich Village Cookbook: Approximately 400 Recipes from Greenwich Village’s Leading Restaurants. New York: Fairchild, 1969: 103-114. [Includes recipes for black bean soup Madeira, mignonettes of veal à la campagne with glazed chestnuts, chicken Méditerranée, striped bass à la Grecque, moussaka, corn bread, dacquoise, deep dish apple pie, and several other dishes.]
McGovern, Isabel A. “Dining Around New York: Things to Eat on Days When Mercury Soars.” New York Herald Tribune, July 7, 1962: 9.
McGovern, Isabel A. “Dining Around New York: A Coach House Dinner Tops Tour of the Village.” New York Herald Tribune, June 10, 1961: 9.
Patrick, Ted, and Silas Spitzer. Great Restaurants of America. New York: Bramhall House, 1960: 42.
Paddleford, Clementine. “New Food Products Introduced.” New York Herald Tribune, June 9, 1959: A2.
Notable Guests:
Joe Baum (Restaurateur)
James Beard (Chef): Dined at the Coach House every Christmas Eve. (1)
Paul Bocuse (Chef)
Michel Guérard (Chef & Writer)
Mildred Newman (Psychologist & Writer)
Aristotle Onassis (Shipping Magnate)
Alan Rich (Music Critic): “I would be very happy to be buried in a bowl of that black bean soup.” (2)
Anne Rosenzweig (Chef & Restaurateur): “Oh, those corn sticks, you thought about them for weeks before you finally went for dinner.” (3)
Jean Troisgros (Chef)
James Villas (Writer): “I won’t eat clams anyplace but here.” (4)
Notes:
Leon Lianides’s pre-Coach House occupation is up for debate: According to William Grimes, Lianides “had made his reputation at Sea Fare, a restaurant that attracted a devoted following by offering only the freshest fish, cooked Mediterranean style.” (5) Meanwhile Gael Green describes Lianides as “an industrial engineer working in promotion for the Skouras Theatres Corporation” (perhaps he was both chef and engineer?). (6) In any case, in 1949 Lianides purchased the Helen Lane Restaurant at 110 Waverly Place, a tea room and “hangout for little old ladies” (7) described as “New England in the heart of the village.” (8)
Waverly Place was a street of carriage houses, and 110 was part of “nine houses built in 1826 for city comptroller Thomas R. Mercein.” (9) Over the years, the building served as a carriage house for the Washington Square estates, including that of department store heir Rodman Wanamaker, who moved to 12 Washington Square in the 1920s. (10) By the 1940s the carriage house had been transformed into a “four-story apartment house” in the possession of former Manhattan District Attorney Edward Swann, upon whose death in 1945 the property was sold and the ground floor converted to restaurant use. (11)
Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich (son of Felidia’s Lidia Bastianich) opened Babbo in the former Coach House space in 1998.
Chef Larry Forgione attempted to revive The Coach House in 1999 in the Avalon Hotel at 16 East 32nd Street. (12) Forgione’s menu featured modern American dishes as well as minimally altered Coach House dishes like the corn sticks and black bean soup. (13) However, as restaurant critic William Grimes later noted, “The Coach House was history, a fond memory. Those old enough to know the restaurant in its prime could not possibly be pleased, no matter how good the corn sticks.” (14) The new Coach House closed the following year.
Related Restaurants:
Sea Fare (According to William Grimes, where owner Leon Lianides first made his name.) (15)
Menu:
Dinner, February 20, 1965 (Culinary Institute of America)
Recipes:
(1) Dinner is Served 1972, 2020.
(2) Quoted in Greene, 1974: 84.
(3) Quoted in Fabricant, 1998: F5.
(4) Quoted in Carter, 1982: B7.
(5) Grimes, 2009: 211.
(6) Greene, 1974: 85.
(7) ibid.: 85.
(8) Taylor, Jeanne. “New York City Ports of Call.” Swing 2, 10 (October 1946): 59.
(9) Wilson, Maya. “The Painters of 108 through 114 Waverly Place.” Off the Grid: Village Preservation Blog, March 30, 2023.
(10) Paddleford, 1959; McGovern, 1961; Miller, Tom. “The Edward Cooper Mansion – No. 12 Washington Square.” Daytonian in Manhattan. Blog, January 13, 2015.
(11) “East Side Parcels in New Ownership.” New York Times, July 15, 1946: B34.
(12) Grimes, 2009.
(13) Grimes, 1999.
(14) Grimes, 2009: 311.
(15) ibid.
Cover photo: “The Coach House, Hayloft Room, Menu.” (1965). Bruce P. Jeffer Menu Collection. The Culinary Institute of America, Conrad N. Hilton Library, Archives and Special Collections (Digital Collections). Accessed March 11, 2025.
The New York City Restaurant Archive 