Interview: David Kuhn of CHEZ NOUS in the West Village

David Kuhn is a literary agent and one of the owners of Chez Nous, the cozy French restaurant tucked away in the famed Marlton Hotel in the West Village. David has cultivated a rich cultural community around the property, shaping a dining experience that resonates with longtime regulars while introducing it to a new generation of New Yorkers.

Before entering hospitality, David built an extensive career in media, beginning as a magazine editor at The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He later transitioned into publishing, where he has represented wide-ranging roster of influential voices across politics, entertainment, and culture—including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, performance artist Marina Abramović, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, actress and comedian Amy Schumer, musician Mark Ronson, model and author Emily Ratajkowski, actress Julianne Moore, actor John Lithgow, actress America Ferrera, and comedian Paul Scheer, among others. This breadth of clients underscores David’s deep cultural connectivity in New York and beyond, and is representative of his relevance in both the media and art worlds. 

Since stepping into his role at Chez Nous, alongside designer Kevin Thompson, David has created a dining room that feels distinctly New York, one that is transportive and familiar, elegant yet inviting. 

The space at Chez Nous is further defined by David’s thoughtful curation of art and objects, most notably a striking 30-foot mural by Cecily Brown, The Ballad of the Dish and the Spoon. Painted directly onto the dining room wall, the work reimagines the familiar nursery rhyme through Brown’s signature interplay of abstraction and figuration. Commissioned specifically for Chez Nous, the mural serves as both a visual centerpiece and a conversation starter, reinforcing the restaurant as a gathering place for artists, writers, and creatives across disciplines.

We had the opportunity to interview David about his fascinating career, his thoughts on the hospitality industry and Chez Nous.

You have had an impressive and eclectic career.  How have your positions in media, culture and art complemented your work as a restaurateur?
In my first career as an editor at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, my job involved keeping tabs on the cultural zeitgeist and predicting future social and cultural trends. As a book agent my role is to do all that plus be a mentor to creative people, curate ideas, create excitement around a project, and draw people’s attention to the things I care about. All of that experience, and being able to wear many hats at once, applies to my role at Chez Nous – which combines cultural and culinary curation, business savvy, aesthetics, creating community.

What inspires you to select specific art pieces for Chez Nous?
The 30 foot mural painted on the back wall is by my partners’ and my great friend Cecily Brown; two sculptures are by friends Katia Read and David Haskell, and several pieces were left to us by our late friend and neighbor Barbara Warner Howard. In the bar we hung 20 or so reproductions of drawings by the late Saul Steinberg, who may be most famous for his iconic New Yorker covers, some of which he created while I worked at the magazine.

What piece of advice can you lend to someone interested in entering the hospitality industry?
Be an extrovert who gains energy from being around people. Be good at small talk. Be obsessed with detail.

Can you share any of your future plans for the restaurant?
To host the occasional pop-up musical evenings now that we have an upright Steinway in the main dining room. The first one will happen when my sister, Broadway star Judy Kuhn, and her accompanist Todd Almond, perform after dinner on May 11.

Chez Nous is located at 5 West 8th Street, New York, NY  10011.  For hours of operation, menus, and more information, please visit Home | Chez Nous in New York, NY and call 212.321.0111.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chez Nous