Major Food Group's 2017 seafood concept lives inside Lever House — Skidmore Owings & Merrill's 1952 Park Avenue modernist landmark — and reads as a Peter Marino design vehicle as much as a restaurant. The Marino interior, his first U.S. restaurant, is white-onyx-bar, Pollock-splatter tile floor, Richard Prince prints, and pink leather banquettes; the room IS a substantial part of the editorial draw. Executive Chef Tasuku Murakami brings a Tribeca sushi-chef pedigree to a Japanese-leaning seafood program — sushi, sashimi, tempura, raw bar — alongside lobster preparations and the signature Lobster Club sandwich. The Lobster Club holds Michelin Plate (no star) and absorbed a mixed-negative Pete Wells review at NYT in its early years — Murakami's chef pedigree is his own, not transferred credentials, and the Marino interior carries the venue's editorial weight. As MFG's 4th NYC catalog row alongside Carbone, Torrisi, and The Lobby Bar, this room threads the MFG portfolio at the Japanese-seafood angle rather than the Carbone / Torrisi Italian-American spine. For Peter Marino's first U.S. restaurant interior, with an MFG Japanese-seafood program tuned for Lever House.
