Fancy NYC Condo ‘The Noma’ Is Not Actually a Restaurant

There’s a new New Noma! And it’s here! In America! Unfortunately, it is not any kind of version of chef René Redzepi’s influential Copenhagen restaurant, but merely a luxury apartment building in New York City with an almost identical logo.

The website for the Noma, the building’s official name, describes it as “a boutique collection of fifty-five condominium residences in a sculptural twenty-four-story neo-Bauhaus tower.” Clearly, the developers want the Noma to exude luxury, and how better to do it than to call to mind what many fetishize as the best fine-dining restaurant in the world?

For those in the industry, like New York chef Jeremiah Stone — who spotted the building and shared it to Instagram — the Noma’s particular combination of lowercase letters calls to mind just one institution. The condominium’s sans serif typeface isn’t exactly the same as the Noma restaurant serif type designed by Danish agency Kontrapunkt: In New York, the “n” and “m” are simpler and the “o” rounder (Kontrapunkt calls “the organic shapes of nature” its inspiration for the restaurant type). But fine-dining aficionados in the market for a new home will no doubt also note the all-lowercase similarity. And, really, who wouldn’t want to live at Noma?

Noma, the restaurant, certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on the Noma name. The new construction is actually named for the Nomad neighborhood, the area north of Madison Square Park. But, because there is already a “The Nomad,” the Sydell Group hotel and restaurant from World’s 50 Best winners Will Guidara and Daniel Humm, the Noma condo people seemingly dropped the “d” and went with another restaurant name. (There’s also a Noma shoe store just over a mile downtown from the the Noma in New York.)

“The name is really paying homage to the neighborhood, the Nomad, and the fact that there’s so much going on,” a spokesperson for the Noma said. “That was really the inspiration.”

Although the folks behind the Noma may appreciate the supposedly unintended association with foraged Danish herbs, sadly, the name is where the similarities with the restaurant end. As far as we know, René Redzepi will not be gracing the kitchens of any of the 55 apartments. For those interested anyway, two-bedroom units start at $2,495,000, or approximately 6,930 Noma seafood menu tasting experiences.

• The Noma [Official site via @chefjeremiahstone]