What exactly is open at Fifth Avenue and East 86th Street this month? Since October 1, Neue Galerie New York has been running as a café, a bookstore and a design shop, with two floors of locked galleries upstairs. The art returns on November 12. Until then, the ground floor of 1048 Fifth Avenue is a neighborhood café inside a closed museum.
Usually this would just be a scheduling detail. This year it means more, because in May the museum agreed to become part of The Met. Of everything inside the William Starr Miller House, Café Sabarsky is the one piece the merger announcement names as continuing, and it is also the piece that reopened first.
Six Weeks With Only the Ground Floor Open
The museum closed on May 27 for what The Art Newspaper called major renovations. The Neue Galerie describes the work as a "multi-phased construction project to enhance our historic building and fortify it for the future." It has not published a detailed scope.
The building has four floors open to visitors. Café Sabarsky, the Book Store and the Design Shop are on the main level. Austrian fine and decorative arts fill the second floor. The third floor holds rotating exhibitions or the German collection, and Café Fledermaus is on the lower level. For now, only the main level is open.
Here is what is open, effective October 1:
- Café Sabarsky: Monday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Tuesday.
- Book Store and Design Shop: Monday and Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Tuesday, and open online around the clock.
- Seating: Breakfast and lunch are first come, first served. Dinner reservations go through Resy. After 4 p.m., when the kitchen starts preparing for dinner, walk-ins depend on availability, though you can still walk in for dessert or drinks.
- Takeaway: The café sells meal kits and whole cakes to go, ordered in advance.
The gap has a practical upside. Normally, a café table at Sabarsky competes with the museum's ticket line. With the galleries closed, the only people coming through the door are there for the café or the shops. The six weeks before November 12 are the one stretch this year when that's true.
Why the Café Came Back First Matters More This Year
On May 14, 2026, The Met and the Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie New York announced plans to merge in 2028. The section of the announcement that spells out the deal names the café directly:
"Upon completion, the Neue Galerie and the William Starr Miller House will be renamed The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie. The combined museum would continue to display the collection, pursue programming, and welcome visitors to its galleries, shops, and the popular Café Sabarsky."
The same passage says the collection and the building itself would come under The Met's ownership once the deal completes, "following all necessary approvals." The Neue Galerie's wider assets, including its endowment, would transfer to The Met. The house would become The Met's third location, alongside The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters.
Ronald S. Lauder, the museum's co-founder, president and chairman, framed the deal in terms of the whole experience. He wrote that the "exhibitions, permanent collection, design and book shops, and Café Sabarsky have created an experience that transports visitors to another time," and that the merger "will preserve and strengthen the Neue Galerie's legacy in perpetuity." He will chair the joint advisory board guiding the transition.
So in the near term, nothing in daily operations changes. In its September 28 press release, the museum said that "for now until the merger is complete in 2028, the Neue Galerie will continue to operate independently." Its FAQ says the same thing: it remains a separate museum until the transaction closes. The café you sit in this October is still Lauder's café, run by his museum, and the merger paperwork already plans for it to keep running under new ownership.
What the Announcement Leaves Open
The public documents are specific about the name, the ownership and the café. Several things that matter to regular visitors are not yet spelled out:
- Café Fledermaus. The lower-level café serves the same menu as Sabarsky on select days and hosts lectures and film screenings. The merger announcement doesn't mention it either way.
- Admission after 2028. Current tickets are $28 general, $18 for seniors 65 and older, and $15 for students, educators and visitors with disabilities. The announcement doesn't say what admission will cost under The Met.
- The renovation itself. The museum calls the summer project a "successful restoration" but hasn't itemized the work.
The gifts that come with the merger are clearer. Lauder and his daughter, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, plan to donate 13 paintings from their personal collection. Klimt's The Dancer, Kirchner's The Russian Dancer Mela and Beckmann's Galleria Umberto are to be given when the deal closes, and Klimt's The Black Feather Hat is among the promised future gifts. The family also plans a substantial gift toward an endowment for the building's long-term care.
A House That Has Changed Hands Before
The Met will be the fifth owner of 1048 Fifth Avenue. The industrialist William Starr Miller commissioned the house, and Carrère & Hastings, the firm behind the New York Public Library, completed it in 1914. Miller sold it to Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III in 1944. After her death in 1953, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research bought it and used it as offices until moving to 15 West 16th Street. Lauder and the art dealer Serge Sabarsky bought it in 1994.
Sabarsky died in 1996 and never saw the museum open. Lauder carried the plan forward. The architect Annabelle Selldorf restored the building to its original state while adapting it to museum standards for displaying and preserving art. The museum opened in November 2001. The house is a designated New York City landmark, the marble is original, and the beveled glass and brass lamps in the foyer are by Adolf Loos.
Each earlier sale turned the house into something different: a private residence, a society home, a research institute's offices, a museum. The 2028 transfer is the first one where the stated plan is to keep the building doing exactly what it already does, under the same roof and largely the same name.
November, in Order
The galleries reopen with "25th Anniversary Exhibition: Masterworks from the Neue Galerie," which fills the entire building from November 12, 2026 to January 11, 2027. It is drawn mostly from the permanent collection, includes Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, and adds some recent acquisitions. Director Renée Price and Janis Staggs, Director of Curatorial, curated the show. It marks the museum's twenty-fifth anniversary, and it is the only round-number anniversary the Neue Galerie is scheduled to celebrate as an independent private museum before the 2028 merger.
Dates on the museum's calendar:
- Now through November 11: café and shops only. Tuesdays are dark.
- Thursday, November 12: all galleries reopen. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday and Wednesday through Sunday, with final gallery entry at 5:30 p.m.
- Friday, November 13, from 5 p.m.: free access to the exhibition during opening week, listed under the museum's First Fridays program. Free First Friday admission is first come, first served.
- Thursday, November 19, 6 p.m.: members' private view.
- Monday, November 30, 6:30 p.m.: a screening of Die Drei von der Tankstelle / Three from the Filling Station. The museum lists tickets as available soon.
A few rules apply once the galleries reopen. Children under 12 aren't admitted during regular hours, and visitors aged 12 to 16 need an adult with them. SNAP/EBT cardholders get free admission for themselves and three guests. Walk-ins are welcome, and a limited number of timed tickets can be bought in advance. On special-event evenings, the café runs modified hours.
Between now and November 12, the café on the main floor runs on its full schedule without the museum crowd.
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