Electric Lemon

Altitude and Appetite: New American Dining at Hudson Yards

The 24th floor of 33 Hudson Yards offers a vantage point that most Manhattan restaurants simply cannot match. The western edge of Midtown's newest commercial district sits close enough to the Hudson River that the New Jersey skyline registers as backdrop rather than afterthought, and at lunch, the light through floor-to-ceiling glass shifts the dining room from cool morning clarity into something warmer by mid-afternoon. The physical setting at Electric Lemon is not incidental. It is, in many respects, the argument the restaurant is making: that serious seasonal American cooking belongs in this kind of space, alongside corporate towers and high-end retail, and that the two ideas are not in conflict.

Hudson Yards as a dining destination has attracted skepticism from critics who see it as a planned district without the organic character of, say, the West Village or Tribeca. That skepticism is not without basis. But Electric Lemon occupies a position within the development that resists the usual luxury-mall restaurant formula.

Where New American Cooking Sits Right Now

The New American category has always been a moving target. When it emerged in the 1980s, the designation signaled a departure from French orthodoxy: local ingredients, regional references, technique applied in service of flavor rather than formalism. Forty years on, the category has stratified sharply. At the leading end, places like The French Laundry in Napa and Alinea in Chicago operate as destination tasting-menu institutions with multi-month waitlists and four-figure per-person spends. Below that tier sits a dense and interesting middle ground: restaurants doing serious seasonal work at a price point that does not require a special occasion to justify, the territory where Craft, ABC Kitchen, and The Four Horsemen have each staked different positions in New York.

Electric Lemon's OAD ranking places it in that second tier, where the competitive differentiation turns less on theatrical format and more on sourcing rigor, kitchen consistency, and whether the wine program earns its keep. The tasting menu movement, which reshaped American fine dining through the 2000s and 2010s via destinations like Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg and Lazy Bear in San Francisco, pushed even à la carte restaurants to think more carefully about seasonal coherence across a menu. Electric Lemon operates with a lunch and dinner service, plus weekend brunch, rather than a fixed tasting format. That choice positions it as a room for repeat visits rather than a once-a-year pilgrimage, which carries its own demands: the menu has to reward familiarity, not just impress first-timers.

The broader American dining moment has also been shaped by what happened outside New York. The farm-to-table ethos that Emeril's in New Orleans and Bayona, New American in New Orleans helped establish in the South, or the ingredient-driven precision that defines Providence in Los Angeles and The Inn at Little Washington, has filtered into how kitchens at Electric Lemon's level frame their identity. Seasonal and American are no longer differentiating claims on their own; they are baseline expectations.

The Kitchen and Its Coordinates

Chef Kyle Knall leads the kitchen at Electric Lemon. The restaurant sits inside Stephen Starr's wider hospitality portfolio, a group with significant reach across Philadelphia and New York that also includes Clocktower and Beauty & Essex. The Starr group's scale brings operational resources that smaller independent restaurants cannot access, but it also means Electric Lemon operates under a parent company known for managing multiple distinct concepts simultaneously. The OAD recognition, earned across three consecutive years, suggests the kitchen has maintained standards independent of the group's broader footprint.

The cuisine type is listed as New American and Seasonal, with lunch and dinner service daily plus weekend morning hours. The price point falls at the $$$$ tier for cuisine.

A Wine Program Built for the Room

Wine lists at restaurants occupying premium real estate in Manhattan often read as exercises in prestige signaling rather than genuine curation. Electric Lemon's program, overseen by Wine Director Luba Shmeleva, takes a different approach in at least one measurable respect: the inventory runs to approximately 3,110 selections across roughly 400 labels, with particular concentration in France (including both Champagne and Burgundy), California, and Austria. That geographic spread reflects a wine director making deliberate choices about where depth matters most, rather than chasing completeness across every region.

The list is priced at the $$$ tier, with a corkage fee of $50 for guests who bring their own. The Burgundy and Champagne focus pairs logically with a seasonal American kitchen, both regions reward food that leans on produce and technique rather than heavy sauce work, and the California depth offers domestic options with enough range to serve different points of the meal. General Manager Antonio Lazar rounds out the front-of-house leadership team.

Visiting Electric Lemon: What to Know

Electric Lemon sits on the 24th floor of 33 Hudson Yards, accessible via the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan's far West Side. The address places it close to the 34th Street-Hudson Yards station on the 7 train, which connects directly to Times Square and Grand Central. The restaurant runs a full weekly schedule: Monday through Friday breakfast service begins at 7 am, with lunch from 11:30 am to 3 pm, and dinner from 5 pm (closing at 10 pm Sunday through Thursday, 11 pm on Fridays). Saturday and Sunday open at 8 am with service running through 3 pm for the day segment, and dinner from 5 pm. The multi-service format means it operates as a breakfast and lunch destination for the office-dense Hudson Yards district as well as a dinner room drawing from a wider Manhattan audience.

Reservations: Advance booking recommended given the OAD ranking and the room's profile within the Starr portfolio. Budget: $$$ for cuisine (two courses above $66 before drinks); $$$ wine list with many bottles above $100 and a $50 corkage fee. Dress: Smart casual. Getting There: 7 train to 34th Street-Hudson Yards, then a short walk through the development to 33 Hudson Yards.