Daniel Humm will put his own name on the door at 435 Hudson Street on October 10, when HUMM opens in the West Village with a wood-fired oven in view and reservations already live as of October 1. HUMM is the first restaurant to carry the Swiss-born chef’s name, after years of cooking New York at Eleven Madison Park, The NoMad, and Clemente Bar (Thebestchefawards1).
HUMM takes over the former En Japanese Brasserie space, which closed in December 2024 after about 20 years. Humm now cooks seasonal modern American dishes in the former En Japanese Brasserie space, which closed in December 2024 after about 20 years (Whatnow2).
What Makes HUMM by Chef Daniel Humm Different From Eleven Madison Park
Humm arrives at this opening with a long New York shadow behind him. He is the executive chef and owner of Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad, the owner of Daniel Humm Hospitality, and the chef behind Clemente Bar in New York. Eleven Madison Park has held three Michelin stars since 2012. Humm earned his first Michelin star at age 24. In 2021, he reopened Eleven Madison Park with an entirely plant-based menu, a decision that made the kitchen’s constraints visible to anyone following the city’s fine-dining bench (Chefsroll3).
HUMM is à la carte, has a more relaxed structure than Eleven Madison Park’s elaborate tasting menu, and is built around wood-fired cooking and shared dishes. At HUMM, the guest can order crispy feta, tuna crudo, grilled fish, fried eggplant, and roasted chicken for two in its own pattern. At a tasting menu, the kitchen controls sequence, portion, tempo, and length. The guest has more control over the meal than at a tasting menu (Whatnow2).
Humm’s Swiss background influences the menu. He was born in Strengelbach and grew up in Switzerland. He began his first apprenticeship at Baur au Lac at age 14, when most cooks are still learning how long their body can stand at the station. His first three-star Michelin experience came at Le Pont de Brent, just above Montreux. Later, he came to San Francisco to work at the Hotel Compton, and Danny Meyer recruited him to work in New York (Relaischateaux4).
Humm has tied his sense of ingredients to his mother’s table. “Growing up in Switzerland I learned to appreciate the ingredients we cooked with, but I credit that mostly to my mother, more so than to where I grew up,” he has said. “She exposed me to simple food, fresh ingredients, and local farmers at a very young age and that shaped who I am as a chef and what my values are.” HUMM serves seasonal American cooking with influence from Switzerland and supplies in part from a farm in Hoosick Falls.
The Wood-Fired Menu: What to Expect on Opening Night
Crispy feta comes with sesame and shallot agrodolce. Tuna crudo sits at the raw end of the kitchen’s range. Chicory and tangerine salad brings bitterness, citrus, and leaf structure to the table. Grilled fish gives the oven and grill a direct assignment. Fried eggplant arrives with pickled green tomatoes. Roasted chicken for two gives the dining room a shared center. Milk and honey closes the meal.
A cook working live fire reads heat by proximity, flame, ember, and the color of a surface. The oven is not a combi oven set by button. Fish can move from clean to overrun in the span of a short conversation. Chicken for two requires the cook to manage skin, joint, breast, thigh, resting time, and carving.
A plate of crispy feta with sesame and shallot agrodolce speaks in acid, salt, fat, and crunch. Fried eggplant with pickled green tomatoes puts softness against brine. Chicory and tangerine can be read before it reaches the table: bitter leaf, juice, pith, and snap.
The wine program will include established wine regions and smaller producers. A wood-fired, shareable format can pull a wine list in several directions: high-acid whites for crudo and chicory, structured reds for roasted chicken, skin-contact bottles or oxidative styles for fried eggplant and pickled green tomatoes. The opening list will show how Humm’s team wants the room to drink.
How to Book Humm Restaurant in the West Village for Opening Week
Reservations for HUMM opened on October 1, nine days before the October 10 opening at 435 Hudson Street. The HUMM West Village launch brings together several kinds of demand at once: Humm’s three-star following, diners who have tracked Eleven Madison Park since before the plant-based reopening, West Village regulars who remember En Japanese Brasserie, and visitors who plan New York meals around a chef’s next move (Thebestchefawards1).
Guests can choose between the main dining room, the bar, and the lounge. The dining room will serve the full menu. The bar and lounge will offer smaller food menus. The dining room serves the full opening menu, from crudo to roasted chicken for two to milk and honey. The bar and lounge offer smaller food menus and wine from the wine list.
HUMM is a neighborhood-scaled New York reservation compared with Eleven Madison Park. The West Village has a smaller arrival scale than Madison Square Park. Hudson Street carries neighborhood movement: residents walking home, regulars heading to a bar seat, service staff moving between nearby rooms. HUMM enters that pace with a name that will draw destination diners, but the room’s dining room, bar, and lounge setup gives it several rhythms from the first week.
Pierre Yovanovitch, En Japanese Brasserie, and the 435 Hudson Street Room
Pierre Yovanovitch designed HUMM, and the space brings together a wood-fired oven, an open kitchen, a dining room, a bar, and a lounge. Artwork from Francesco Clemente, Rashid Johnson, Louise Bourgeois, and Roni Horn will be featured in the restaurant. The restaurant features artwork from Francesco Clemente, Rashid Johnson, Louise Bourgeois, and Roni Horn, and the oven is the central object for cooks. It sets the room’s heat source, sightline, and tempo.
The former En Japanese Brasserie space carries its own memory in New York dining. It closed in December 2024. A two-decade restaurant teaches a block how to enter, where to wait, when to linger, and what a regular feels like. Humm takes over the former En Japanese Brasserie space for a different cuisine.
The open kitchen also suits a chef whose career has often been read through systems. Eleven Madison Park’s 7 to 9 course seasonal tasting menu focuses on local ingredients. Its service model asks a guest to submit to the kitchen’s architecture. Diners will see the fire, the hands on the pass, the transfer from oven to plate, and the room’s movement between dining room, bar, and lounge.
The Swiss Lineage Behind the Modern American Menu
Humm’s early apprenticeship at Baur au Lac began at 14. His apprenticeship at 14 placed him at the bench before adulthood. He later encountered three-star cooking at Le Pont de Brent, above Montreux, then crossed to San Francisco for the Hotel Compton before Danny Meyer brought him to New York.
The athletic details in Humm’s biography fit the kitchen pattern. He used to be on a Swiss mountain bike team, and he finished the New York marathon in two hours and 51 minutes. Those numbers describe a tolerance for repetition and pace. A marathon at that time requires hours of work before race day, the same way a restaurant opening requires systems before a guest sees a plate.
HUMM’s seasonal modern American frame gives Humm a place to fold that history into a less formal structure. The menu carries Swiss influence without being a menu of Swiss dishes. It can appear in restraint, in the use of local produce, in the preference for clean structure over ornament. The Magic Farms connection places the kitchen’s produce sourcing in Hoosick Falls, New York, a specific point north of the city rather than an abstract promise of seasonality.
A chef with three Michelin stars, seven James Beard Foundation Awards, and a No. 5 ranking on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list has chosen to open a namesake room around fire, shared plates, and an à la carte menu. The à la carte format gives the guest less ceremony and puts more pressure on the cook’s judgment. Salt, smoke, acid, rest, and timing will matter.
What to Watch After October 10
How does the bar menu differ from the dining room’s full menu? Which bottles from smaller producers make the wine list? How does the kitchen handle the transition from tuna crudo to grilled fish to roasted chicken for two? Does the fire become a visible method, or simply a feature of the room?
Humm has spent years in New York cooking through highly structured rooms. At 435 Hudson Street, he has chosen a namesake restaurant with an open kitchen, a wood-fired oven, Magic Farms produce, and a menu that lets tables build their own meal. After opening week, the crew will have more time on the tools and the room’s service rhythm will be clearer (Whatnow2).
