In New York City, on the corner of 34th Street and Ninth Avenue, a former parking garage has been transformed into one of New York’s hottest new dining destinations: Limusina. The 215-seat restaurant marks the first venture into Mexican cuisine for Quality Branded, the restaurant group behind some of the city’s most recognizable dining rooms—like Quality Bistro, Zou Zou’s, and Twin Tails. Inside, industrial remnants of the building’s past meet layered interiors that channel the glamour and grit of late-1970s and early-1980s New York, sprawling across three levels.
Designed by GRT Architects, the space preserves the irregularities of the original structure—from exposed concrete columns to split-level transitions between dining rooms—while introducing warm marble, blown glass, custom lighting, and textured surfaces in peach, amber, and pale violet tones. The result is cinematic, reflecting the neighborhood itself, situated between the sleek rise of Hudson Yards and the character of Midtown’s west side. Throughout the restaurant, monumental chandeliers, glowing partitions, and hand-painted motifs soften the industrial bones of the former garage, creating a dining room that feels intimate yet expansive.
Red Snapper Taco Dish. Courtesy of Christian Harder.
In the kitchen, Executive Chef and Partner Craig Koketsu approaches Mexican cuisine through a lens of reinterpretation rather than replication, drawing inspiration from regions across Mexico while weaving in touches of Cal-Mex and Tex-Mex influences. Signature dishes include oversized machetes layered with combinations like black truffle, guava jam, and melted cheese; individually dressed nachos known as Solteros; and larger-format dishes like Lobster al Pastor and Long-Bone Short Rib Quesabirria. The menu balances indulgence, spice, acidity, and playfulness, while desserts—from Jelly Donut Conchas to a Sweet Corn Ice Cream Sundae—continue the restaurant’s approach to flavor and presentation.
Whitewall spoke with Michael Stillman from Quality Branded, Koketsu, and Rustam Mehta from GRT Architects about translating the energy of Mexico through a New York perspective, reimagining an industrial site into an immersive dining environment, and building a restaurant where cuisine, design, and atmosphere merge in style.
Glamour and Grit in the Heart of Manhattan
Machete Squash Blossom. Courtesy of Christian Harder.
WHITEWALL: Michael, this is your brand’s first venture into Mexican cuisine. Why was this gastronomy something you wanted to explore?
MICHAEL STILLMAN: For us, it wasn’t about “doing Mexican” for the sake of it. It was about finding a point of view within it that felt authentic to how we like to build restaurants—layered, transportive, and a little unexpected. There’s a richness to Mexican cuisine, both in flavor and history, that felt like the right canvas to put our signature Quality spin on something people already feel connected to.
“There’s a richness to Mexican cuisine, both in flavor and history.”
-Michael Stillman.
WW: Limusina harks back to New York City in the ’70s and ’80s, filled with glamour and grit. How does it do that through design—from its materials and its lighting, and more?
MS: It started as a parking garage, and we really leaned into that—keeping the rawness of the exposed concrete and industrial bones, then layering in more polished, elevated materials. There’s a tension between grit and refinement—marble, blown glass, dyed leather—paired with cinematic, colored lighting that washes the space in warm, surreal tones. The lighting was key—custom fixtures, glowing partitions, chandeliers—so the whole room feels a little hazy and transportive, like stepping into another era through a modern lens.
WW: What would the perfect night at Limusina look like for a newcomer? Where should they start, what should they order, etc.?
MS: Start at the bar—have a cocktail and take in the room. Once you’re seated, I’d go for a mix of smaller dishes and a few larger formats to share—the menu is really designed that way. Don’t miss the Whole Red Snapper Tacos, the Pork Belly Chicharrón, and you definitely have to get the elote brûlée.
Finish the night with our signature tequila service for a premium tasting, and if you’re so inclined, pop into our secret mezcal vault—the perfect setting for a fun, intimate dinner.
A Menu Inspired by Mexico’s Culinary Landscape
Seafood Tower. Courtesy of Christian Harder.
WW: Craig, for the menu, you’ve pulled inspiration from various regions in Mexico. Can you tell us a bit about the R&D that went into creating the menu and its unique flavors?
CRAIG KOKETSU: At Limusina, we aren’t trying to serve a textbook recreation of regional Mexican cooking. Instead, we look at Mexico’s vast culinary landscape as a map of inspirations to which we pay tribute. My R&D process usually starts with a single “obsession”—a specific preparation or flavor profile—and then I go down the rabbit hole. Between vintage cookbooks, archival techniques, and a lot of “field research” (eating out), I work to understand the heart of the dish. With that understanding, we can rebuild it into something that feels entirely unique to us.
“I work to understand the heart of the dish.”
-Craig Koketsu.
WW: Tell us a bit about reinterpreting flavors in your own way. What’s unique about this menu in terms of flavor, spice, presentation, etc.?
CK: Our Long-Bone Short Rib Quesabirria is a good example of a format tweak: we took the flavors of a classic street food staple and reformatted it into a massive, fun tableside presentation.
On the flip side, with the Machete, the presentation is already legendary. In that case, I focused on subverting the flavor profile. You won’t find black truffle and guava jam paired with Chihuahua cheese in a traditional Mexico City market, but that combination of earthy funk, sweetness, and melt-in-your-mouth cheese is exactly the kind of unexpected twist we love to play with.
WW: What’s your favorite thing on the menu right now?
CK: The Elote Brûlée! It’s a full-circle culinary moment for us. We took the classic corn crème brûlée—which has been a staple at Quality Meats for two decades—and reimagined it through a Mexican lens. It’s salty, sweet, creamy, and charred all at once. It isn’t just a side dish; it’s the bridge between our history as New York steakhouse icons and this new, vibrant chapter at Limusina.
Preserving the Character of the Former Garage
Lobster & Corn Soleteros. Courtesy of Christian Harder.
WW: Rustam, Limusina is a gorgeous space. How did you approach redesigning a former garage? Were there elements of the previous space you wanted to leave untouched?
RUSTAM MEHTA: Limusina is near many of Manhattan’s newest and most polished developments. We loved the site for being the opposite: its irregular floor and chipped mushroom columns tell the story of the West Side’s history before Hudson Yards. Our design preserves and highlights all of the site’s idiosyncrasies. The most noticeable is the way the restaurant steps down from an elevated former loading dock to the main dining room to the “pool room” on the east. Look closer and you’ll see we commissioned hand-painted vegetal motifs on all of the building’s original columns.
WW: Tell us about blending sumptuous materials with industrial ones—and how that shapes the ambiance.
RM: In addition to keeping elements from the former garage intact, we added materials that walk the line between high design and industrial. One of our favorite materials is the cast basalt tiles in the entry and restrooms. These are used in steel mills and water treatment facilities, but we loved them for their irregular molten look, which beautifully contrasts the refined elegance of the patterned marble floor they are adjacent to.
WW: What’s your favorite design element in the space?
RM: The lighting. From the glowing back bar down to the table lamps, we designed every decorative light fixture in Limusina. We’re especially proud to have taken a lot of chances—the monumental dining room chandeliers and room-sized “grid” fixtures in the upper rooms really have no precedent—and we think they all came out beautifully.
