"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star." - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Alla Scapece is a term you’ll often see on menus in Naples and around Campania. The term and dish comes from the Spanish escabeche, which is usually a fish dish marinated and cooked in an acidic sauce. The Campanian version doesn’t diverge much Last week […]
I am living in Positano for the summer and I haven’t thought to write about it here once. I have been too caught up in Colatura di Alici di Cetara and Marina in Cucina. The former is a fish sauce from a small town near […]
Little King: A Love Story
In a warm brass and charcoal hued den, soft orbs of light hang in mesh baskets from the ceiling like old street lamps slung in fish nets. Dark wood paneling wraps the room and rounds protruding corners, guiding me from the Art Deco doorway to the room’s focal point: two reunited friends behind a salvaged mahogany bar. They shake, strain, pour, and invite the Sunday afternoon drinkers who surround them to get in on their vibe (cool warmth, accented with hot toddies). John strains a War Horse (Laphroaig Single Malt, Overholt Rye, lemon, Aperol, Falernum) into a coup and hands it to me. The frothy smoky liquid feels like a preamble to something.
Sam Esterman plus husband and wife pair John Moskowitz and Christina Salway are the trio behind Little King, a new bar that serves food in East Williamsburg, doors from the Graham stop on the L. The bar serves not-overly-complicated cocktails and decadent pork belly donut sliders. But then there’s fluke crudo, roasted bone marrow, prosecco on tap, and a succinct list of natural and biodynamic wines. The assortment sounds disjointed, like the three pulled their ploughs in different directions to sow the same land. But in action, it works.
Blonde and erudite Christina sits customer side of the bar with me, while mellow Manhattanites John and Sam take turns telling their story, mixing drinks, and conversing with guests. John scoops ice for glasses Sam holds, Sam strains a cocktail that John shook, the two punctuate each others’ sentences. They navigate their tiny domain with the finesse of long-time line cooks. It seemed three had known each other for ages, that Little King fulfilled a long dream for them, but the trio actually came together last fall, serendipitously.
John and Christina, college sweethearts, came to the idea when John was looking for a career change. He declared he was going to have a midlife crisis (a few years early). Christina, an accomplished interior designer, supported him. “Hands in the middle, man,” she said, “Let’s all crisis together.” They moved to Paris. There, John began to harbor a dream of opening a bar; one with a food menu that rotated daily and reflected the seasons.
Sam has worked in the industry, both back and front of house, for years. He wanted to be his own boss. “We were living parallel lives,” Sam says of John and himself. They went to elementary school together in the West Village where they were friends, “but we weren’t besties,” John clarifies. They had lost touch before their Bar Mitzvahs. In August 2015, Sam and John and Christina went looking—separately—for bar locations in Brooklyn.
One hot day in Brooklyn Heights, softer spoken Sam tells me, “John and Christina were actually on their way to check out the space I had just passed on.” He catches eye contact with a customer and retreats. John fills in, telling me that Christina spotted these three guys standing in an open space, her senses attuned to any locations for rent. So they poked their heads in, and “Sam turns around and I was like, ‘I fucking know you.’” It had been twenty years, but they didn’t look all that different. They exchanged numbers.
John and Sam began to go to community board meetings together, exchanged ideas and discussed struggles they both faced opening a bar. “We sorta started dating,” John explains. After months of courtship, and pivotal break ups with former business partners, the two went to lunch. “We went to a Mexican joint and drank a bunch of micheladas, and we talked about food, and we just decided to—“ Sam cuts in, “Just get married.” To clarify, John’s real wife, Christina, was never dumped in this process. Their lives stopped running parallel that day.
John, Christina, and Sam quit their day jobs and for six months renovated the space they found almost entirely themselves. Christina put her expertise to use. She tells me, “I wanted it to feel like the back door to somewhere really grand. Like the staff bar to Grand Central Station— associated to something lavish without actually feeling that formal itself.” She evokes this in every sconce and flower arrangement, it all feels like slightly faded glory.
They are aware that three equals with differing opinions and strengths and visions could spell disaster for the bar. (“Two hot toddies,” an Irish fellow walks up and asks. John eyes Sam, “You’re in.”) John tells me “the good thing about us as a partnership is that we talk about everything, and the bad thing about us as a partnership is that we… talk about everything. Really, it’s a fucking committee meeting if we’re going to put the bitters over here or, over here. But it matters. We all care.” So far, it’s a love story that seems built to last.
As a part of the team interns at Heritage Radio Network, we were asked to write blog posts to promote NYC Cider Week. Below, find my work from the posts. It’s fall in New York City. For us, that means the Chelsea boots and knit scarves […]
Sitting at the bar at Bonnie Vee, which I had recently wrote a less than stellar review about, I considered why I would keep (I’ve probably been there five times since I wrote it) returning to a place I felt was so mediocre at […]
Tasting Collective is a cool new company operation that comes in to restaurants on nights when they are closed and begs and pleads (and pays) the chef to create a huge multi-course meal to be served at one communal seating and served totally family style. The idea is to give the guests an opportunity to try a wide range of the chef’s cuisine, and for the chef to have a little more freedom to show off maybe a different aspect of their food or at least more variety than a guest would traditionally experience in one meal. It is also quite affordable– only $50 for nine courses, and $10 to add all you can drink Yuengling. How can you say no to that?
Unfortunately for us, Pig and Khao was not closed on the night we dined. Nor was Chef Leah Cohen at the helm in the kitchen. This was a bit disappointing not because the food wasn’t good. The service was incredibly slow at first though (because they had a full restaurant up front and a party of close to 40 in the back and a kitchen about the size of my kitchen in my Lower East Side apartment). We got very hungry since it was dinner time and not much food came out for a long time, so after the smallish chicharron, burmese eggplant salad, and green papaya salads were passsed around and everyone (family style) politely took a small amount, the coconut sticky rice arrived. Famished, we dove in. And then the largest portions of everything else followed. It was all so good. Nothing on the menu tasting anything but heavenly. After stuffing my face with coconut sticky rice (which also helped to cool my tongue after all the spicy stuff) though, it was harder to enjoy.
Tasting Collective rating: solid 6. Great idea, execution was off.
Pig & Khao rating: food so good!! 9! I don’t blame the kitchen for the crazy circumstance they were in, though maybe Chef Cohen should’ve made the executive decision to not be both open for service and an event of this size. Maybe if trendy restaurant real estate on Clinton Street weren’t reaching over saturated levels (Clinton St. Baking Co, Thelma, Ivan Ramen, and Black Crescent are all within a block), she would have.
Below, check out the full menu:
Chicharron
with ten spice and coconut vinegar
Burmese Eggplant Salad
with peanuts, dried shrimp, mint and shrimp chips
Green Papaya Salad
with charred chicken, green papaya, crispy taro, peanuts, herbs, fish sauce, and lime juice
Sizzling Sisig
with pork head, chili, and whole egg
Khao Soi
with red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, and red onions
Mussels
with dashi, yuzu, chinese sausage, and fried mantao buns
BBQ Baby Back Ribs
with p&k bbq sauce and asian slaw
Seafood Sinigang
with cod, littleneck clams, shrimp, seasonal vegetables, and tamarind broth
Coconut Rice
Turon
with banana fritter, salted caramel ice cream, and chocolate sauce
The crispy skin is the most important part. And since the skin is where all the good for you omegas and stuff are– why not show it off! First, make sure that there are no scales on the skin, because that would be gross. Scrape […]
I will start with the two most popular tradition and unique Georgian dishes served at Georgian restaurants in Manhattan. Georgian cuisine is both national and regional. Both of these dishes are present throughout the country but have many regional differences in style and ingredients used. […]
Le Turtle measured up to the hype.
It also measured up to the atmospheric oddities I had previewed (on the website) and heard about. Servers were, in fact, in grey jumpsuits. Fortunately they were all young and fit and pulled them off well.
The host at the front was curt but polite, in a weird way. He called me “mademoiselle” but barely made eye contact. He kind of joked with me.
The music was loud rap and hip hop. The banquette was very low, I sat easily six inches below the chair-sitting folk across from me.
The service was knowledgeable about the food but not that attentive or prompt. When I asked about a couple of wines, the server did not know how to answer. He said they were new (totally fine) and that he would discuss with someone and they would pick us one. The woman who served it seemed to not have gotten the memo that she should tell us which wine they had selected for us or maybe described it (since I asked). Regardless, it was perfumed but dry and mineraly.
What we ate (all shared):
The food was really incredible. The chicken was one of the best I have ever eaten. The skin was insanely golden and crispy. The chicken was presented whole over seared crackling hay. This is a technique I’ve seen before, up at a place called Fish & Game in Hudson actually, and it was very good there as well. They bring it back in to the kitchen to carve it and then serve the meaty pieces, neck and feet too!
I enjoyed crunching on the feet, the juicy thighs, and the chicken fatty and herbaceous bitter greens served alongside.
Our server opened up towards the end too, or maybe we did, after a second bottle of that flowery wine.
This is untraditional fine dining, and they pull it off.
Clean Plates is a guide and company started by Jared Koch to help you lower the anxiety that menu in front of you is unhealthy, unsustainable, or generally bad. Jared Koch created company which “curates the market place, products, advice… what’s real practical changes for […]