Behind The Swinging Doors: A Look Inside The Kitchen At Measure

When you're out to dinner and the plate shows up in front of you, do you ever wonder how it got there? Are you ever curious about the hands that were mixing that sauce, or the eyes that designed the dish, or even what everyone on the restaurant staff does when the tables are empty? Well, we are. So The Daily Meal is going behind the scenes of your favorite restaurants, to see just what goes on in there during all hours of the day.

Click here to read more about The Daily Meal's Behind the Swinging Doors feature.

We stopped by New York City's Measure, at the Langham Place, Fifth Avenue hotel, on a Tuesday at 7:18 p.m. too see how things looked. Their dinner rush hadn't started, so it was still slow. One on side of the kitchen, mini pastrami sandwiches were being plated for passed hors d'oeuvres in the bar. On the opposite side of their enormous room sat meticulously set room-service tables, one placed by the line, dressed with and ice water and rolls, waiting for dinner to be served. In the photo above, one of the Measure cooks, Marcy Gibson, hands a plate off to go upstairs to a hotel guest.

Katar Varivarn relaxes during a slow moment in the kitchen.

Anteo Tomori puts on a jacket before delivering room service to a hotel guest.

The kitchen at Measure is in the hands of executive chef Jeffrey Seizer, previously of Gramercy Park Hotel. He has developed one menu for both the Langham Place room service and the Measure Lounge. In the lounge, Michael Smith creates the cocktails. Their classics, like a Moscow Mule or a gimlet, are perfectly executed. Every night at 8 p.m., a jazz band performs, which is an excellent time to enjoy the garlic soup and a Sazerac.