Taylor Swift Is Back in Her NYC Fine Dining Era

Taylor Swift, a consummate workhorse who’s in the midst of a record-breaking stadium tour, is also currently on the kind of nightlife tear we haven’t seen from her since the peak of her making-New-York-City-my-personality era.

This past week, People reported that the pop star was spotted making out with Matty Healy, her controversial new boyfriend, at Zero Bond, an exclusive, members-only NoHo club frequented by Mayor Eric Adams. The supposedly PDA-packed appearance comes after Swift spent six years largely tucked away from the prying eyes of the public alongside her very private ex-boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn.

Indeed, ever since her breakup with Alwyn, which was first reported in April, Swift has been spotted dining out with pals and on the arm of her new beau all around New York City with uninhibited exuberance. Not since the time she frolicked with Tom Hiddleston in the ocean—while he sported that infamous “I ❤️ T.S.” tank top—has Swift appeared so carefree or so public.

In the halcyon days of the late 2010s, Swift could be seen grabbing brunch at Sarabeth’s with Karlie Kloss, catching up with Lena Dunham over sushi at Blue Ribbon, gabbing across pancakes at the cozy Tribeca diner Bubby’s, Instagramming gigantic cookies at Levain, or even catching up with Kanye West at The Spotted Pig, long before both West and that restaurant were definitively canceled.

As of spring 2023, Swift’s preferred eateries and club hangs have switched up, but the prevailing energy—“I’m the biggest star in the world, why shouldn’t I enjoy myself?”—is all too familiar. It’s giving 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

Days after the Alwyn breakup was announced, Swift was spotted emerging from Via Carota, a West Village trattoria, with her go-to producer Jack Antonoff and his fiancé, the actress Margaret Qualley. For diehard Swifties, the symbolism was unmistakable. On her heavily West Village-referencing album Lover, which is understood to be largely about Alwyn, Swift sings, “Hope I never lose you, hope it never ends / I’d never walk Cornelia Street again.” Guess which street is just a couple city blocks away from Via Carota?

As a setting for a debut post-breakup appearance, Via Carota communicates upscale-casual coziness, along with excellent cuisine: Shortly after Swift’s visit, the New York Times published restaurant critic Pete Wells’ ranking of the 100 best restaurants in the city, and Via Carota came in fourth place. She’s living a little, and celebrating her freedom with, for example, asparagi bianchi and Martinez martinis. The place gives off the air of exclusivity—reservations can be notoriously difficult to pin down, due in no small part to its frequent mentions on celeb gossip account DeuxMoi—but warm and welcoming, which aligns with Swift’s brand.

Meanwhile, that Swift was most recently spotted at Zero Bond with Healy may be due to a recent dustup at Casa Cipriani, which, until recently, had been her preferred members-only club. Situated in the Battery Maritime Building at the very tip of Lower Manhattan, Casa Cipriani, which demands an entrance fee of $2,000 and a $3,900 annual fee, was the site of frequent Swift link-ups with Alwyn and Dunham in a past life.

Swift had dinner with her close friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at CC in late April, and on May 11, she and Healy were stealthily photographed holding hands at the club by another patron. Shortly afterwards, Page Six reported that three Casa Cipriani-goers had their memberships revoked for breaking the club’s no-photos rule: “Taylor came knowing the policy and then had to leave,” their source said. (The Daily Beast reached out to Casa Cipriani for comment.)

Also in April, Swift stepped out for dinner at Lure Fishbar with her buddy Ashley Avignone, a Nashville-based stylist and designer. Elegantly laid out and designed to look like the interior of a yacht, the upscale Lure absolutely qualifies as a place to see and be seen.

“We do not have any comment re: her visit,” Mercer Street Hospitality founder John McDonald told The Daily Beast. “It was widely photographed and reported that she did dine with us, so that is accurate.”

Swift’s absolute favorite NYC hotspot, though, is neither a restaurant nor a club, though she’s already turned it into a party venue on more than one occasion this spring. Whether in broad daylight or after hours, paparazzi have snapped Swift gliding in and out of the iconic Greenwich Village recording hotspot Electric Lady Studios countless times during the month of May.

Last week, for example, Swift threw a party at ELS attended by Healy, Antonoff, singer Florence Welch, and even her old “Bad Blood” collaborator Kendrick Lamar. And earlier this week, she was again spotted leaving the studio alongside famous pals Phoebe Bridgers, Zoe Kravitz, and Qualley.

Normally, Swift frequenting a recording studio would incite the most chatter about what new music she has up her sleeve (as if her impending Speak Now re-release and brand new edition of Midnights wasn’t enough). But these days, it’s all about where she’ll show up next, who she’ll show up with, and how long this current, ahem, era of her New York-loving public life will last. As she told us last year with “Bejeweled,” “By the way… I’m going out tonight.” She certainly is.