Peek Inside The Granola Bar of Rye

The Granola Bar owners Julie Mountain and Dana Noorily are bringing their business back to Rye.  The Granola Bar of Rye is reopening, with dinner and drinks joining the menu’s usual breakfast and lunch.

Located at the same address as the original iteration, the restaurant’s interiors have been totally re-imagined.  When asked whether the new space at all resembles the other locations, the owners looked and each other and laughed before a simultaneous “no.”   “It’s completely different,” Noorily says.  Interior designer Corry Ioli of Sweet Casual Style helped the owners bring their vision of a retro-chic vibe, inspired by Miami, into the space. 

With five locations––Fairfield, Westport, Stamford, Greenwich, and Rye––the owners aim to bring a cosmopolitan dining experience to suburbia.  As such, the Rye restaurant will be open until 10pm.  Located across the street from the Rye Metro North Station, city-dwellers might be the ones who start making the 25-minute trip out of the city to check out “The BAR.”  The redesigned interior is accompanied by a new evening menu with “share or not to share” plates, a selection of 16 wines, and a cocktail list.  The cocktails are mostly named after women in the co-owners’ families, fitting for the women-owned business.  

Mountain and Noorily say they also hope the hospitality is what separates The Granola Bar of Rye from other restaurants.  “What’s going to make us unique is not [just] the phenomenal food, the gorgeous drinks, and the environment,” Mountain says.  “It’s nice to go somewhere where someone knows your name and […] what you like.”  

The Granola Bar of Rye reopens on Thursday, March 10.

C&G: There’s a cocktail list in the evening, but how about mimosas at breakfast?

JM and DN: Yes. 

JM: We have two menus at The Granola Bar of Rye.  We will have The Granola Bar menu that you’ve come to love from 7 A.M. to about 3 or 4 P.M.  And then we’ll have The Bar menu, which is our evening menu.  Both have cocktails.  We’ll have mimosas, Bloody Mary, Bloody Maria…We have a daytime cocktail list and an evening cocktail list.  

C&G: What is your favorite cocktail? 

DN: The Paloma.  I also like the Dorothy, though. It’s like a spicy margarita.  It’s to die for. 

JM: It’s for Dorothy and The Golden Girls, because we’re obsessed.  My favorite cocktail is the Paloma.

C&G: Besides the menu, how will The Granola Bar of Rye transition from daytime to nighttime?

DN: It gets a little more vibey and moody in the evening––candles, lighting, music.  But the space really is beautiful in both parts of the day.  I think it’s going to be really inviting to people to have an avocado toast or an egg bowl in the space during the daytime, and then once you dim the lights, change the music, and light some candles, it’s going to totally change the vibe.

C&G: What was the design inspiration behind the new The Granola Bar of Rye?

JM: It’s kind of like if Julie and Dana opened a restaurant in 2022.  We went to Miami right before the pandemic, and we were so moved by that tropical feeling, the feeling of being in a city, but really escaping.  We wanted a space where if you’re going to pay for a babysitter, if you’re gonna go out, if you’re not gonna pay for a babysitter and still go out––we love the feeling of literally escaping the everyday.  There’s a lot of ‘hotel vibe’ to it.

DN: I think it’s going to be shocking to people.  Once you’re in that environment, and you’re eating something delicious and having a cocktail, you’re just going to feel like you’re on vacation.  

C&G: What was it like working with interior designer Corry Ioli? 

JM: She is a friend of mine who I met years ago as a hockey mom.  Dana and I met with her and told her our dream fantasy of what the space would be. She took us on as her first commercial interior project, so I think it’s been a really good collaboration.  

DN: Working with someone who is open to our influence and not just hers was really refreshing to us.  It was a collaboration, but there was no ego involved and I think it turned out really special.  

C&G:  What is your favorite design aspect of the new space? 

DN: I would have to say the liquor bar.  There’s a lot of beautiful elements, but when I walk into the space, whenever I look at that I just get the chills.  

JM: We have semicircle banquettes.  For me, I love the idea of soft in a restaurant and not hard lines all the time.  I long for the days you actually sat and talked to the people you were with and not on your phone.  They’re really special and I can’t wait for the first three year old to to put Sharpie on it.

C&G: What are your favorite items on the menu? 

DN: I can definitely say without thinking very hard, for the evening menu the tuna tartare tostada is amazing.  I am also excited about having a burger.  We have a very delicious Pat LaFrieda smashburger and we also have pull-apart sliders––equally delicious.  And of course, we’ve always dreamed of having a restaurant with french fries.  On the brunch menu, probably the truffle egg toast. 

JM: I’m so excited to have a bagel, lox, and cream cheese back on the menu.  I love that we have caviar on our brunch menu and our evening menu just because I think it’s so special.  I don’t think you can find it everywhere.  We are doing it with mini hash browns, so you get a bowl of mini hash browns with sides of caviar and sour cream––so that’s kind of fun.