It was as fragrant as a cedar-lined sauna, a woodsiness mixed with coffee and wine, as if the scruffy guys in the J. Crew catalog were scratch-and-sniff. Long, hefty tables—their reclaimed timbers stained nearly black—anchored the room, looking capable of feeding a threshing crew. Against a backdrop of slate-blue walls, dog-eared black-and-white photographs in mismatched frames made the room feel as intimate as a private home. In fact, it could almost be mistaken as such if not for the curved banquettes beside the front windows, the wine glasses and bottles lining the back wall, and the window into the commercial kitchen.

While the Armatage Room's menus are different from Maude's, they feel similar enough to be interchangeable. Armatage's wine and beer lists are brief but varied, including both familiar names (Newcastle, pinot noir, syrah) and those less commonly seen at local bars and restaurants (Sri Lanka's Lion Stout, an Italian nebbiolo, a Spanish monastrell).