Red Rooster Harlem

New York, NY

Address

310 Lenox Ave, New York, NY, 10027

Phone

(212) 792-9001

Website

redroosterharlem.com

About Red Rooster Harlem

Red Rooster Harlem is a soul food restaurant and live music venue at 310 Lenox Avenue in the heart of Harlem, co-founded by acclaimed Ethiopian-Swedish American chef Marcus Samuelsson alongside Andrew Chapman. The restaurant takes its name from a legendary Harlem speakeasy that once welcomed jazz greats and cultural icons such as Nat King Cole and James Baldwin, and it carries that same spirit of community and celebration into its dining room today. The menu blends comfort food rooted in Harlem's culinary heritage with a wide range of American cooking traditions: soul food staples like fried chicken, shrimp and grits, catfish, and collard greens sit alongside contemporary dishes such as pasta, salmon, and steak, plus Caribbean-influenced jerk preparations. Breakfast service features chicken and waffles, and the bar offers a full lineup of craft cocktails and beverages. The dining room is designed as a vibrant gathering space, filled with colorful wall art and an energetic atmosphere that reflects the neighborhood's history. Red Rooster also functions as a live music venue, hosting paid performances that showcase local Harlem talent and helping sustain the borough's deep artistic and musical traditions, from jazz to hip-hop. Chef Marcus Samuelsson, who became one of the youngest chefs ever to receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won eight James Beard Foundation Awards, built Red Rooster around a mission of uplifting the Harlem community through food, culture, and opportunity. The restaurant prioritizes hiring locally and supporting neighborhood purveyors, embedding the business directly into the economic and cultural life of the neighborhood it calls home. Samuelsson has since expanded his restaurant group to other cities, but Red Rooster Harlem remains the flagship expression of his vision: a place where Harlem's history, its people, and its food come together at the same table.

Red Rooster takes its name from a Harlem speakeasy that once drew jazz legends and literary icons like Nat King Cole and James Baldwin during the neighborhood's Harlem Renaissance heyday. Chef Marcus Samuelsson and co-founder Andrew Chapman opened the restaurant at 310 Lenox Avenue to honor that legacy while building something new: a modern gathering place rooted in Harlem's food, music, and community history. Samuelsson, who rose to prominence as one of the youngest chefs to earn a three-star New York Times review and has since won eight James Beard Awards, designed Red Rooster's menu around the layered history of American food in Harlem, shaped by African American migration from the South, Caribbean and European immigration, and decades of creative reinvention. From day one, the restaurant's mission has centered on uplifting the surrounding community through food, culture, and opportunity, including hiring locally and sourcing from neighborhood purveyors. Beyond the kitchen, Red Rooster built a stage for Harlem's musicians, continuing a tradition of live jazz and performance that stretches back to the speakeasy era. That combination of food and music has made the restaurant a cultural anchor in the neighborhood, one that reflects Samuelsson's broader vision, chronicled in his books "Yes, Chef" and "The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food," of celebrating Black culinary heritage as a central thread in American cuisine.

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