When my lovely friend Andrea Stanford comes to town, we always go somewhere new. Last night it was the recently opened hotspot Manhatta. The newest edition to the Danny Meyer restaurant empire is terribly chic but the view of all of lower Manhattan is what really steals the show. Manhatta is located on the 60th floor of 28 Liberty Street, a Skimore, Owings & Merrill mid-century tower in the financial district. The restaurant and bar have their own dedicated entrance on the side of the building with a seating area and coat check. The private elevators deposit you on the bar side of the space upstairs with lots of handsomely suited men from Wall Street. The small center dining area and wine storage wall leads back to another bar that allows you to watch the chefs in action from the main dining room. The interiors reflect the colors of the sky and buildings below in soothing shades of blue and warm wood tones. My one critique is that the art curated by emerging artists doesn’t complement the decor and looks jarring. I think it would have been chicer if they had collected old nautical paintings to reference the harbor below. I also think Sea Paintings by artist Hans-Peter Feldmann that I saw at Art Basel would have been the perfect punctuation to the restaurant’s beautiful design. Other than the art, I really loved our evening at Manhatta, which takes its name from the Walt Whitman poem Manahatta. Make a reservation now since they are already booking up or arrive at 5:00pm to drink in the view from the bar as you sip a cocktail.