At Ralph Lauren's New York restaurant, comfort food is on the menu

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Ralph's Corned Beef Sandwich at The Polo Bar.

Published: 6:19am, 5 Jun 2015

Between Fifth and Madison Avenues, around the corner from the new Polo Ralph Lauren store in New York, a smartly dressed man stands under a dark green awning holding a clipboard. When anyone approaches he checks his list. This isn't a new nightclub, it's a restaurant, but if your name's not down you're not getting in.

The Polo Bar is Ralph Lauren's third restaurant following RL in Chicago and Ralph's in Paris. It's open for dinner only (for the time being) and is reservation only, no walk-ins, even for the bar.

Inside is wood and leather with an open fireplace in the ground floor bar and glowing lighting throughout. Equestrian paintings and polo paraphernalia cover every available space on the hunter green walls. Based over two floors with the restaurant in the basement, it feels like a grand home - like the Ralph Lauren flagship stores around the world (including the recently opened one in Hong Kong at Lee Gardens Two in Causeway Bay).

Lauren says the restaurant is inspired by his love of the city's classic eateries (apparently his first date with his wife, Ricky, was at New York steakhouse, Keens) and gathering around the table with family and friends.

It is an extension of the Ralph Lauren brand. The restaurant sits within the vast building which houses the new and first ever dedicated Ralph Lauren Polo store. Some of the tableware is available to buy, the coffee is brewed especially for Ralph Lauren (there's a coffee bar in the new Polo store next door). The waiting staff wear Ralph Lauren (ladies, if you bought the tartan silk dress from the autumn-winter 2014/15 Polo collection, don't wear it here).

"I don't want to be the hot restaurant," says Lauren. "I want to be the restaurant you want to go to twice a week."

And he dines there regularly. The evening I visited he had a table with a bird's eye view of the restaurant. I saw Lauren and Ricky take a while to leave as so many diners wanted to shake his hand and speak to him as if he was a movie star.