Bar CC, a new Chelsea lounge from the Crane Club circle, is scheduled to open in September at 85 Tenth Avenue, between West 15th and 16th streets. The Bar CC Chelsea opening belongs on your short list if you care about cocktails because Harrison Ginsberg, behind Overstory, one of the World’s 50 Best Bars, will oversee the lounge and lead the bar at Crane Club (Eater).
Why the Bar CC Chelsea opening matters now
The Bar CC Chelsea opening is not another lounge attached to a restaurant. The useful fact is the staffing: Harrison Ginsberg moves from the Overstory orbit to a Crane Club project run by chef Melissa Rodriguez and Jeff Katz in partnership with Tao Group Hospitality. If you follow New York bars by the names making the drinks, not by room photos, this is the September opening to track.
Overstory gives Ginsberg the credential signal most new bars would buy if they could. The Financial District bar at 70 Pine Street appears on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, and the source report credits Ginsberg with helping make it a destination. Bar CC gives him a different problem: no known skyline hook in the reporting, no announced seat count, and no published cocktail list yet. The bet is whether Overstory’s drinks credibility can carry into a velvet-walled Chelsea lounge tied to Crane Club’s crowd (Eater).
The location matters because 85 Tenth Avenue already has hospitality memory. Bar CC takes over the former Mel’s pizzeria space, between West 15th and 16th streets. Crane Club occupies the former Del Posto dining room nearby, a room that later housed the short-lived, two-Michelin-starred Al Coro. If you watched Al Coro’s Michelin run or booked Del Posto for client dinners, the address tells you this is not a casual cocktail stop (Eater).
Peer comparison is simple. Overstory remains the pick if you want the FiDi destination-bar format with a view. Bar CC is the one to track if you want a Chelsea night built around cocktails, caviar, live-fire cooking, and a wine list that the opening report says will run beyond 1,000 bottles.
Harrison Ginsberg brings Overstory credibility to Crane Club
Ginsberg is the reason Bar CC has a different ceiling from most restaurant-adjacent lounges. Before this move, he joined the 70 Pine Street team in 2018 and helped open Crown Shy, Saga, and Overstory. That matters because those venues were not one-format operations. Crown Shy handled a ground-floor restaurant brief, Saga handled fine dining, and Overstory became the high-altitude cocktail name in the group (Eater).
At Bar CC, the report says Ginsberg will develop the cocktail menu and also lead the bar at Crane Club. For guests, that creates a useful split. You do not have to choose between a restaurant drink program and a lounge drink program run by different teams. The same drinks lead is attached to both rooms, which should make Crane Club dinner into Bar CC drinks a more coherent booking than the usual restaurant-to-lounge shuffle.
There is also a timing point. Ginsberg announced his departure from the 70 Pine Street team on August 3 and paid tribute to James Kent, who died of a heart attack in June 2024 at age 45. You do not need to romanticize that to see the professional reset: Bar CC is his next public platform after a run tied to some of New York’s most scrutinized dining and drinking rooms.
For Pearl readers, the decision is whether you want to be early to Ginsberg’s next bar before the reservation pattern settles. If you already send clients to Overstory, Manhatta, or the better hotel bars when they ask for a drinks-first New York night, Bar CC deserves a slot in that rotation once it opens. If you only care about a finished list, published prices, and a tested room, wait until the first month of service produces real data.
What to expect: cocktails, 1,000 bottles, caviar and fire
The source gives enough menu detail to make Bar CC more than a vague lounge promise. Ginsberg will handle cocktails. Crane Club wine director Abe Zarate will oversee a list of more than 1,000 bottles, with many available by the glass, according to the opening report. Rodriguez and her team are planning a short food menu built around caviar, live-fire cooking, and small dishes.
That combination changes who should book. If your ideal bar order is one martini and a bowl of fries, Bar CC may be overbuilt for you. If you like the rhythm of a drink, a few high-spend bites, a bottle discussion, and another round after dinner, this format makes sense. The more than 1,000-bottle list is the practical tell. This is not a cocktail-only room with a token Champagne page.
The caviar and live-fire details also suggest Bar CC will work better for two to four people than for a roaming birthday group, unless the private dining room becomes available for that purpose. The source has not published a seat count, minimum spend, or reservation rules. Until those arrive, assume the smart move is to plan small. A couple or tight four-top will have more ways to use cocktails, by-the-glass wine, and small dishes than a large group trying to control a lounge table.
Compared with Crane Club, Bar CC should be easier to justify when you do not want a full restaurant commitment. Compared with Overstory, it should offer more food and wine depth if the announced caviar, live-fire cooking, and Zarate list arrive as described. Track Bar CC for the full evening, not for a quick pre-dinner drink you could get anywhere in Chelsea.
The room: former Mel’s, three spaces, wine private dining
Bar CC will occupy the former Mel’s pizzeria space, which Rodriguez and Katz opened in March 2022 and closed in January 2025. Before Mel’s, the address had other lives: the John Dory with April Bloomfield, Ken Friedman, and Mario Batali, and later private dining for Del Posto, where Rodriguez and Katz worked for more than a decade. That history matters because this team knows the room’s lineage from both the guest side and the operator side.
The new layout will divide Bar CC into three rooms, including a private dining room surrounded by wine, according to the source report. That is the line to watch if you book for collectors, investors, or friends who care more about what is opened than what is posted. A wine-wrapped private room attached to a bar with Ginsberg cocktails and Zarate’s list is the format for small dinners, post-auction drinks, and hospitality nights where the table matters more than the crowd.
Susan Nugraha, Tao Group’s design executive, and Laseu Studio are handling the design. The report names velvet walls, custom carpeting, walnut millwork, furniture, and lighting. Those details tell you the room is aiming for texture and enclosure rather than the bright pizzeria energy of Mel’s. If you liked Crane Club’s design direction, the same design team is involved here.
Do not confuse that with a guarantee of comfort. Three rooms can feel clubby in the right hands and cramped in the wrong ones. Until Bar CC releases booking mechanics, the practical call is to keep expectations flexible: ask for the room type if reservations allow requests, but do not build the whole night around a specific table unless the venue confirms it.
The Crane Club and Tao Group signal
Crane Club gives Bar CC its opening audience before the first cocktail lands. The restaurant is run by Melissa Rodriguez and Jeff Katz with Tao Group Hospitality, and the opening report says it has already drawn Mick Jagger, Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrien Brody, LeBron James, and Jay-Z during World Cup week in mid-July. That does not make a bar good. It does mean early prime-time tables will likely be shaped by regulars, friends of the room, and high-spend guests before public demand gets a fair shot.
Tao Group’s ownership also matters here. The source report says Mohari Hospitality purchased Tao Group in 2023, and identifies Mohari as owned by billionaire Mark Scheinberg. It also notes Tao’s recent Hudson Yards projects, Peak with Priceless and Avenue Sky Lounge. Bar CC is a smaller, more targeted play than a sky lounge: three rooms, a wine private dining room, a Crane Club connection, and Ginsberg on drinks.
That makes the peer set more specific than “new Chelsea bar.” Bar CC should be judged against New York rooms where drink credentials, food spend, and room control matter together. If you want a pure cocktail pilgrimage, Overstory remains the comparison. If you want a restaurant-backed Chelsea lounge with a deep bottle program, Bar CC has the stronger setup on paper than many hotel lobby bars that rely on room-rate traffic and generic snacks.
How to play the Bar CC opening in September
No public reservation release, pricing, seat count, or dress code has been announced in the source report, so do not plan this like a normal open-book reservation yet. The Bar CC Chelsea opening has enough built-in demand from Crane Club, Tao Group, and Ginsberg’s Overstory following that the first useful tables may go before casual drinkers notice.
Book it early if you want first access to Ginsberg’s next cocktail list, if you value wine depth at a bar, or if you need a Chelsea option that can move from drinks to caviar and live-fire small plates without changing venues. Skip the first wave if you dislike opening-month service variables, need published prices before committing, or want a quiet bar where nobody is tracking who walked in after 10 p.m.
For groups, think small until the venue says otherwise. Two people can test the cocktails and by-the-glass list properly. Four can make use of the food menu without turning the night into a logistics exercise. For a larger spend, watch the private dining room surrounded by wine. That is likely the most useful part of the venue for collectors and hosts if Bar CC makes it bookable rather than keeping it for regulars.
The next facts to watch are the cocktail list, reservation platform, opening date inside September, and whether Abe Zarate’s by-the-glass program leans broad or rare. If those details match the personnel on paper, Bar CC becomes the Chelsea bar opening to prioritize this fall; if they do not, it still tells us where Crane Club, Tao Group, and Ginsberg plan to take the room next.
