Bar Ambra has opened at 134 4th Ave., adding an Italian-inspired cocktail-and-small-plates concept to Union Square. Its menu includes shareable tapas-style bites and a dedicated area behind the bar for spritzes, according to amNewYork.
The bar marked its opening with an Oct. 14 event featuring a happy hour, complimentary drinks, live jazz and crafted bites, according to amNY. Eytan Sugarman is a co-owner of the venue. Crain's New York also covered the Union Square project.
Bar Ambra is a sibling to Ambra, the Italian restaurant in the West Village, and is part of the team behind Dandelion and Keepers, according to amNewYork. The Union Square venue is slightly larger than its West Village counterpart, with more emphasis on cocktails and wine than on full dinner service.
Union Square’s Changing Food Scene
The Union Square Partnership’s 2025 Commercial Market Report counted 53 new businesses opening in the area over the past year, 81% of them food and beverage establishments, according to the Union Square Partnership. In a separate development, Eater NY reported on March 25, 2025, that the former Urbanspace site at 124 E. 14th St., near Third Avenue, was slated to become a Time Out Market food hall.
A Spritzeria and a Lobby-Bar Look
Behind the bar, the Spritzeria anchors the drink program, built around the bar's own takes on the Italian aperitivo classic. The space draws its look from upscale New York lobby culture, with New York photography, amber lighting and candlelight setting the mood, the outlet notes.
The concept also draws on aperitivo, the Italian tradition of meeting over a drink and a few bites before dinner, as described in the same amNY report. That gives the bar a focus on social drinking and small plates alongside full dinner service.
Sugarman's Growing Footprint
Bar Ambra adds to a list of ventures that already includes White Horse Tavern, the roughly 146-year-old West Village literary haunt and the second-oldest continuously operating bar in New York City, which Sugarman took over, according to Eater NY. He's also an owner of the Midtown steakhouse Hunt & Fish Club, the same outlet reported.
His roster extends further still. Sugarman is also the force behind the Made in New York pizza chain, and he founded Hudson Street Hospitality Group in 2024 as an umbrella company for all his endeavors, according to Commercial Observer. That same outlet reported he's opened another cocktail bar and restaurant, called Dandelion, at 115 Christopher Street under a 10-year lease for roughly 2,000 square feet, developed in partnership with Will Makris of Prince Street Hospitality.
Between Bar Ambra's Union Square debut and Dandelion's West Village bar, Sugarman's footprint across Manhattan's bar and restaurant scene keeps expanding — all while anchored by the 1880s-era White Horse Tavern, one of his ventures in the city's hospitality world.
