http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/dining/chumleys-bar-restaurant.html 2016-09-06 18:35:34 Nearly a Century On, Chumley’s Has a New Idea: Serious Food The speakeasy will reopen, after a renovation, with an ambitious menu and waiters in white jackets. === I was never a beer-drinking regular at Chumley’s. But back when I was in college (and New York’s drinking age was a tender 18), I would occasionally visit that hallowed West Village tavern with a date, sipping a martini or two before dinner somewhere else downtown (Blue Mill? Monte’s?). I suppose one could have had a burger or a plate of pasta at Chumley’s, but we never bothered, though on one occasion, I wish we had. The result of too many martinis and no food led me to renounce gin for 30 years. Now I look forward to returning because the bar, which opened as a speakeasy in 1922 and remained somewhat hidden — no sign — even after Prohibition, will be serving serious food by a talented chef. Victoria Blamey, who has cooked at Atera, Corton and Upland, plans a menu with twists like a burger topped with bone marrow. She’s fine-tuning her upscale fried chicken, beef tartare, and vanilla ice cream modernized with parsnip purée. “We know about food,” said Alessandro Borgognone, who owns the highly rated The premises “In the old days, the drinks were very simple,” Mr. Borgognone said. “Today they have to be more elaborate.” Chumley’s 86 Bedford Street (Barrow Street), September.