Steven Chambers, Steve Jacobs (hairstylist), Ron Doud (designer) and Sam Haddad (art dealer) have combined their creative talents and recaptured the era of the late 1930s and early 1940s in W.P.A. Restaurant. These imaginative men came up with an idea for a restaurant with a different flavor.
This dining haven nestles in the Soho area at 152 Spring St. near West Broadway. Its location was once an industrial part of town. At a time in history when Congress, during the F.D.R. administration instituted the “Works Progress Administration” act. This act insured jobs for the many unemployed effected by the Great Depression. The W.P.A. unemployed were paid $15-$90 a month for a variety of jobs. These jobs ranged from ditch-digging to manuscript writing and painting. Soho, being an area populated with as much of the past as the present, was an ideal choice for such a restaurant. The building itself was erected in 1819 as a schoolhouse.
The concern of the founders of W.P.A. Restaurant was to retain the atmosphere of that era. While at the same time keeping the restaurant low-keyed and easy. They’ve accomplished that through their choices of staff and the decor. Murals by George Stravinos, a gleaming walnut bar, and a huge Art Deco mirror are few of its outstanding features. The music of that time is piped in. Balanced with the jazz of today, it helps to establish the mood. The dining room decor extends the theme of the period through the use of the colors black and white. The tables are decked in black with white cloths atop. Waiters and waitresses are dressed in styles of the early 1940s also donning in black and white uniforms. Above the center of the dining room, a skylight is bordered by red and blue lights offsetting any harshness from the surrounding black and white tmotif. All elements combined, you can almost hear the megaphoned voice of Rudy Vallee or the rhythmic tapping of Bill Robinson’s dancing feet.
W.P.A.’s menu is not extensive but it’s enticing:
Complete Dinner Menu
Cocktail
Choice of appetizer
WPA Soup
Rack of Lamb for Two (cooked with a mustard and bread coating)
Choice of Salad
Coffee or Tea
Expresso
Complete dinner $18.50
A La Carte Menu
Soup of the day
Fresh Green Salad
Calves Liver, sautéed with bananas and Liquor
South Hampton Salad
Red Snapper
Choices of assorted meats and salads Lobster tail on a bed of Spinach Fettuccine
Pheasant, roasted whole with juniper berries, gin, and tarragon
Veal Sautee, strips of young veal in white wine sauce with lemon
Price: $2.50-$8.50 per portion
W.P.A. Restaurant has been written about by many. And it has been visited by Sarah Dash, Lee Radziwell, Jacqueline Onassis and Lillian Hellman. But no matter who comes through their door, the proprietors’s goals are to make the customers comfortable and eager to please their palates.
There are plans for expand the franchise to the Los Angeles area. The West Coast is really in for a treat from this just-turned-one year old establishment. Happy birthday and much success.