The bar is designed in an Art Deco style with a gold-leaf ceiling and discreet lighting, including a small shaded lamp with an amber glow on each of its 21 glass-top tables.

When it's busy, the room hums as if it's the center of the world, and when it's quiet, as a veritable oasis of serene calm, it throws into sharp relief the relative chaos of the city outside.

[11][5] Other bartenders involved in managing Bemelmans have included notable mixologists Dale DeGroff and Audrey Saunders.

Saunders excelled at her job there, and was later approached to be an operating partner and the creative talent for the Pegu Club bar she became known for.

[13] In 2007, noted bartender Brian Van Flandern left Per Se to rework the bar program at Bemelmans.

Other murals were in the Hapsburg House restaurant in the city, a nightclub on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, and the playroom on Aristotle Onassis's yacht.

Woodwork and leather were restored, nicotine was scraped from the walls, and a layer of 24-karat gold leaf was applied to the bar's ceilings.

[24] Amid the renovations, the hotel hired star bartender Dale DeGroff to reinvigorate the cocktail program, and he had Audrey Saunders, his protégé, oversee a new drink menu with new flavors and homemade ginger beer.

[26] In 2007, the event was revived as the Madeline Tea Party at Bemelmans Bar, taking place on Saturdays and Sundays.

[15] On March 16, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, indoor dining was completely restricted in New York state, forcing the bar's indefinite closure.

While Bemelmans has typically been an "old-school" bar inviting in regulars, Upper East Siders with tailored clothes, young people (part of Gen Z) began to visit the bar more, dressed casually, taking selfies of themselves in the space, and ordering a large volume of espresso martinis.

While the management take care to enforce their dress code and limit of the size of a party, they welcome younger visitors as part of appealing to successive generations, keeping in business.

[29][30] The bar is a regular attractor of people of fame, including socialites, film stars, politicians, and businessmen.

[21] Notable visitors to the bar have included John F. Kennedy, Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra,[9] Britney Spears, Paul McCartney,[5] Elizabeth Taylor, Harry Truman,[7] Prince Harry and Meghan,[31] Steve Martin, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Heather Graham, and Kim Basinger.

[24] In 2022, celebrity Kylie Minogue visited the bar to promote her wine collection, and sang several of her popular songs at the grand piano.

[1] Regan Hofmann, writing for Punch in 2015, considered Bemelmans the city's "most iconic hotel bar", and one of New York's "most well-known hidden treasures".

Scenes in the latest three productions involve older men taking younger women on dates to the bar.