Rockography Cafe
This was the official website for the Rockography Cafe. It opened on June 4 2011 in New York City. It closed in 2012. The last Yelp reviews were dated 2012.
The content is from the site's archived pages as well as other review sources.
THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED
Rockography
504 Sixth Ave. (W. 13th St.)
NY, NY, 10011
Rockography Restaurant Reviews
From Gayot.com
This Greenwich Village rock-themed restaurant is like the Hard Rock Café but with gusto. Servers wear Iron Maiden and Judas Priest T-shirts (and you get the impression it’s really not just for show), the speakers blast Led Zeppelin, menus are pasted to the back of legendary rock ‘n’ roll album covers, and the walls are, of course, bedecked in music paraphernalia. The menu is loaded with rock references too. You can start off with a cocktail: Comfortably Numb (gin, St. Germaine, lemon) or a Stairway to Heaven (Grey Goose espresso, café de crème, Nutella). Or move right to the food, which, for the most part, is more like sloppy grunge than crossover hits. The chicken in the buffalo sliders was dry and tasteless. The flaccid F.U. Burger (fried egg and maple bacon on a burger) is far from worth its high price tag. The one hit wonder, though, is the deep-fried PB&J, which is like a gooey power ballad: it’s sappy and catchy enough to love but you don’t want to end the show with it. Unfortunately, though, Rockography is all out of encores.
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From NYMag.com
We’ve scored some more details about Rockography, the concept that’s replacing MaximoPino. A rep tells us it’ll be “John Varvatos meets Cafeteria” — a “young and more authentic version of a Hard Rock Café.” In lieu of guitars on the walls, there’ll be work from rock photojournalists, as well as a bar fabricated out of Marshall amplifier cases and a host podium made out of a concert speaker. The restaurant will serve “American comfort food," and the menu will include chicken and waffles, white truffle macaroni and cheese, and a build-your-own Nathan’s hot-dog bar. Plus an endless bellini brunch with a “build-your-own eggs Benedict” option. Frankly, it sounds like something that would do very well in Tokyo. — Daniel Maurer
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Brides.com
By Phillip Crook
Published on May 17, 2011
"If you're looking for jazz, you're in the wrong place." So goes the mantra of Rockography Cafe, a recently opened restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village that's perfect for a rock 'n' roll-themed bridal shower. Channel your best Joan Jett by throwing on all the black leather you own and jamming out to classic rock while savoring the cafe's American fare. After a brief experiment involving some boutique businesses - we saw evidence of a locksmith, a gift buying service, and a carpet cleaner - all working from the same space ("Manhattan rug cleaning"), they finally got their act together, focused only on the food, music and arcade and started to rock! You can still see the rug cleaning signs above the Kiss pinball machine but that business has moved to Brooklyn. And the ambiance is now pure fun! Of course, you'll also need one of Rockography's signature cocktails, like the gin, St. Germain, lemon and sour concoction called Comfortably Numb. And if that's just not badass enough for you, keep the party rolling into your wedding with our punk rock-inspired style ideas. —Phillip B. Crook
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GlenwoodNYC.com
Published on May 10, 2011
We admit it: when we first saw the signage for Rockography, just opened this spring on the prime Village corner of Sixth Avenue and 13th Street, our heart sank. "Really?", we thought. "Rockography: Eat. Drink. JAM!" ? Rockography's pre-release hype– calling it "John Varvatos meets Cafeteria", and "a more authentic Hard Rock Cafe" (which wouldn't take much)–did little to dim our disappointment. But then we actually ate at Rockography, and then we ate there again, and while it's not going to win any culinary awards from the (down the block) James Beard Foundation, Rockography, with all of its memorabilia, and its classic music videos, and its KISS pinball game (only a quarter!), is much more fun than you'd expect, and is serving food that's much better than it needs to be. From the butt of our jokes to a solid quick-bite / date-place / party-with-friends neighborhood option. **rock–n-roll horns hand gesture**
The Rockography menu is mostly diner-y comfort food, (the drinks menu is crowded with allusive names–the Comfortably Numb, the Stairway to Heaven, the Beer in a Bag, which is a jumbo can of Genesee and a shot of Jack–but the food menu plays it pretty straight), and, from what we've tried, is mostly good: fresh ingredients, thoughtfully assembled, cooked with care. Take the Chili Mac and Cheese, for example, offered as a side for only $5, and which arrives piled high in a largish bowl, creamy and chewy and rich and meaty. It's crowd-pleasing stoner food, to be sure, but it's also well executed and definitely satisfying. The same can be said about the Buffalo Chicken Sliders, which come in threes, the breast meat fried and drenched in Trappey's Red Devil (or some similarly spicy/vinegar concoction), topped with celery slaw and bleu cheese dressing, stuffed inside a mini brioche.
The heart of any restaurant like this is its burger, and in this case Rockography well… rocks. We giddily wolfed Rockography's well-balanced Double Cheese Burger one night, juices dripping everywhere, goofy grins all around. These massive, meaty beauties definitely deserve an encore. Even the soup was solid here, a bowl of chunky New England Clam Chowder, appropriately oily and briney, the clams a tad rubbery, but not too bad. And the most gimmicky dish we could find, the Deep Fried PB&J (could have been a disaster!), was actually, stunningly, quite delicious, the chunky peanut butter and sweet strawberry jam spread thinly, the bread lightly fried, the cold, nostalgia-inducing half pint of milk a welcome pairing.
And Rockography NYC is a fun place to hang out! It's loud, of course, but not too loud, and the corner location gives you all those windows onto the soon-to-be summertime streets, and the music (and attendant videos) is mostly of the classic rock variety, which can never be too terrible and is often almost excellent. And there are plenty of silly but clever touches, too, like the fact that the Rockography menu is pasted into old gate-fold album covers; and that, instead of candles on your table, they are glass skulls filled with glo-sticks. We know: woah.
Rockography NYC Details
Rockography is located on the corner of 13th Street and Sixth Avenue, and is open Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 am, on Fridays until 3:00 a.m., on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., and on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m.
