Little Maven

The VCR group, whose founders include entrepreneur and blockchain enthusiast Gary Vee, has plans to open a private dining club with membership purchased via NFT. It’s an intriguing concept, but if you don’t have several thousand dollars to throw at a place that makes Soho House sound endearing, you can always try Little Maven.

From the same restaurant group, this Flatiron spot has funky patterned booths, a back room with Keith Haring-style squiggles on the walls, and a menu of the Mediterranean-leaning American food that you see all over downtown Manhattan. There is, of course, pasta and tuna tartare, as well as a mushy scallop crudo that would find itself in a much better place if it ditched its globs of spicy aioli. The steak isn’t bad, and the caesar salad endive cups are interesting in a gimmicky sort of way, but Little Maven shouldn’t be your first pick in the area. Backup plan only.