As would-be diners approached a nondescript door on a placid block in Greenwich Village on Wednesday night, they were stopped short by a tall, lean man wearing a black fur hat and red carnation boutonniere. He pressed stickers over the lenses of their phones. No photography was allowed, he insisted.
As they complied and disappeared through the door, the block fell silent again.
Inside, silence was scarce. It was the opening night of Frog Club, the first restaurant involving the chef Liz Johnson since the very public implosion of her marriage to Will Aghajanian, with whom she ran the acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant Horses.
Occupying the historic space formerly home to Chumley’s, Frog Club has been veiled in secrecy. Only a 12-minute stiltedly lo-fi YouTube video announced its official opening, and a sparse website offered just an email address for requesting reservations. With Ms. Johnson and Mr. Aghajanian in the middle of a contentious divorce, it’s even unclear who owns the restaurant.
Mr. Aghajanian, 32, told The New York Times, in an Instagram direct message, that the project is “in legal limbo currently,” and that “Frog club is a concept I created and designed.”
Asked Wednesday how she felt about the restaurant, Ms. Johnson, 33, surveyed the space and said simply, “It’s all mine.”
