Rating: 17/20
Where: New York, NY
When: Dinner for 1 on 19 December 2024
Cost per Person: Tasting menu $345, Wine pairing $320
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Small bites with Japanese influences in a counter setting

On a chilly Thursday night in December, I arrived at the “Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare” in mid-town Manhattan, and the hostess greeted me with a “welcome back”. Well, in some technical sense I had indeed been to the restaurant before. Only it had been 10 1/2 years earlier, in a different location (in Brooklyn, a better fit for the restaurant's name) and with a different chef. But it looks like the reservation book survived.

Let's back up a bit. “Brooklyn Fare” is a chain of upscale grocery stores in New York. It started out in Brooklyn, but now has five locations throughout the city. From the beginning, the owner had plans for a fine-dining restaurant as part of the store, and he hired chef César Ramirez to head the first incarnation of “Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare” (CTBF). Diners were seated at a semi-circular counter around an open kitchen - a concept that was more unusual then than it is now. The restaurant soon became known for its great food, hard to get reservations (by phone only), a strict dress code, a no photos/no notes/can’t be late policy, and soon thereafter three Michelin stars - the only restaurant to have held this honor in Brooklyn to this date. Eventually needing a bigger space, the restaurant moved to its current location in 2016.

In July 2023 though, CTBF's owner and chef parted ways among mutual accusations and lawsuits. CTBF's owner hired two new chefs - Austrian Max Natmessnig and Dutch Marco Prins - to reopen the restaurant. Both had been previously been sous chefs here in the 2010s, so they kept the style of the restaurant mostly intact. Coincidentally, we had been to chef Natmessnig’s previous restaurant in Munich only days (hours?) before he learned of this new opportunity. Oddly, that restaurant - Alois - was also associated with a grocery store, albeit a much more upscale one - think: caviar rather than kombucha. Conceivably, if the kitchen of Alois ran out of an ingredient, they could grab some more from downstairs, whereas that probably wouldn't be possible at CTBF.

About a year after reopening, CTBF received two Michelin stars in a slightly awkward ceremony where the two new chefs shared the stage with their previous boss Ramirez, who had also gotten two stars for his new, eponymous restaurant "César". I figured that it would be interesting to visit them both in a single trip to see how they had evolved.

CTBF's entrance is in the back of the grocery store, and it was still easy to tell who was waiting for their dinner table vs just shopping. The jacket-required dress code might have been gone, but the guests were still dressed up (more so than at César, for what it's worth). There were two seatings each night, and at full capacity the restaurant would be able to seat 20 guests at the counter and 24 more at tables. On my visit, there were only 13 diners, all sitting at the counter. I'm not sure whether that was a supply or a demand issue, but I imagine that the kitchen with its current staffing level (I counted five chefs total) might struggle to serve three times as many guests comfortably. Probably a matter of capacity control then, getting the kitchen running smoothly before expanding. The two Michelin stars will probably help with getting more customers in the door - at this price level, having a star or two is almost mandatory in the long run.

The Brooklyn location of CTBF had a bit of an industrial chic vibe - I would add photos from my visit, but, oh well, none were allowed back then... The Manhattan location used more brown tones and wood instead. The counter was made from lacquered dark brown wood, and the tables had white tablecloths. Sitting higher than at César, the view of the kitchen was very good from the counter seats. It was hard not to notice the music playing in the background, leaning more towards the Rolling Stones rather than the Whitney Houston ballads that were playing in the grocery store outside.

The restaurant served just a single surprise tasting menu, and, unfortunately, on my visit they didn't have a printed menu to take home, either. Dietary restrictions were accommodated with a few days' prior notice, and there was an option to have white truffles from Alba shaved over two dishes for an additional $245. I took the plunge (along with about half of the customers), and interestingly, the truffles were a much better addition to the dessert than to the savory course.

A single wine pairing was also available, for a price ($320) that was close to the price of the menu - among the most expensive “basic” pairings I'd seen all year. The wines (and one sake) went well with the food, and some of them were quite good even as non-food wines (it's hard to complain about Dom Perignon and d'Yquem). But given the price, between two people I'd definitely consider getting a bottle of white wine instead.

The first course was a Japanese bluefin tuna toro tartare, served with pickled corn from New Jersey and some flowers on an Idaho potato chip. The fatty, melt-in-your-mouth fish was lovely and the corn added some complementary sourness (but no sweetness, as one might have expected). A great combination with big flavors - the dinner started with a bang 18.

Next came a small tartlet filled with (from the bottom up) red beets, puffed rice, Hudson Valley foie gras and a piece of smoked eel. Eating this, the first sensation was of sweetness, before moving on to the foie gras, then the crunchy puffed rice and finally ending on an umami flavor. Even though it started on a sweet note, this was definitely a savory dish. There were so many layers that I forgot to concentrate on the eel, and totally missed it in the process. Compared to the first dish with its bright flavors, though, ending on an umami note was a somewhat anti-climatic denouement - more a whimper than a bang 15.

Bite number three caused a bit of déjà vu - its tartare of A5 wagyu from Japan's Miyazaki prefecture looked very similar to the toro tartare from two courses ago. It was served in a nori tartlet alongside some romanesco and shiso. The beef was wonderful, with an almost creamy texture. Flavor-intensity-wise, this fell inbetween the first two bites. Not as explosive at the tuna tartare, but using a lovely combination of spices 17.

A Belon oyster, sourced not from France, but from Maine, was served with osetra caviar and a seaweed vinaigrette. A meaty oyster, a slightly creamy caviar and lots of acidity from the sauce - another nice blend of flavors 17.

Yellowtail belly from Hokkaido had been cooked over a binchotan grill, and came with trout roe, shiso, ginger and a finger lime escabeche. In addition, there was a cream at the bottom of the bowl. The fatty fish was of great quality with a lightly fishy flavor - very nice. There was a light smokiness, and popping textures from the trout roe and the acidic finger limes. Good flavors - lovely 18.

The next dish featured uni (sea urchin), also from Hokkaido. It was served with a butternut squash puree on top of a Belgian waffle based on the Dutch chef's grandmother's recipe. Optionally, this dish was served with shaved white truffles. I had to smile seeing this dish. Under the original chef, CTBF was famous for its “uni toast”, which featured copious amounts of uni on top of a toasted brioche, and was also optionally served with truffles. Clearly, the uni/waffle combination is a play on that famous dish, without resorting to recreating it verbatim. Using a “grandmother's recipe” stakes a claim to make it the new chefs' own, while still giving returning diners something familiar. The uni here was of good quality, the waffle ok, and the truffles probably not necessary - they just added a hint of nuttiness to the dish. The combination of savory and sweet in this dish didn't quite work for me, and the dish was also a bit messy to eat. The original brioche-uni-combo had been more savory and the brioche had more crunch than the waffle. Among the three uni on bread dishes that I had in the two preceding months (also here and here), the one at CTBF was unfortunately the weakest 15.

A diver scallop from Maine was served with kaluga caviar, pieces of potato chips, a vin jaune sauce and a citrus leaf. The scallop felt a tad overcooked and didn't taste of much; only its seared surface added a bit of flavor. By itself maybe a 13. I wish that it had been more suffused with the sauce, because the rest of the dish was much better: nice caviar, a bit of crunch from the potatoes, a light, acidic, creamy sauce. The paired sake played well off this creaminess. On average 15.

More seafood from Hokkaido arrived with the next course. This time it was an abalone served with brown butter, kombu rice, a lacquered morel mushroom, chives, an abalone liver sauce and a dollop of pickled, shredded daikon on top. The chef told me that it had taken many iterations to have this dish come out the way they wanted. For me, this dish pivoted on a single ingredient - but not the one that one would think. Starting with the main ingredient: the abalone was a bit too chewy for my taste. It's tricky to get the texture of abalone just right, but ideally it would have been a bit softer while maintaining its characteristic bite. The rice and sauce were quite nice, but a bit earthy and muted. The mushroom somewhat disappeared in this dish, since it was surrounded by other ingredients with more flavor and more texture. So far, a decent dish that was on the muted, earthy side. But this changed completely once the pickled, acidic daikon was added. The daikon gave the dish a kick, lightening it up, and also enhancing the flavors of the other ingredients - a night and day change. I wished that there had been more of it - it made such a huge difference, each bite felt like a 19 or 20. I probably should have mixed all of the daikon into the dish before starting to eat, oh well 18.

A tail of Norwegian langoustine was served with an essence of the langoustine's head, a chili paste, peanuts, chopped cucumbers and mango, coconut milk, a pandan foam, and a curry powder from Germany, all topped with a Thai basil leaf and a cucumber flower. I guess that every country has its own variation on what they consider “curry powder”. And since the chef's previous employer, Dallmayr, produces their own spices, adding some of them here makes sense, I guess. There were lots of South-East-Asian flavors in this dish, but they remained a bit muted - some more acidity, more of a flavor punch, would have been nice. The langoustine itself was very nicely cooked though and quite juicy 16.

The last seafood dish of the night featured a filet of turbot from Holland, served with Norwegian king crab, razor clams and a sauce made using the fish head bones and a vadouvan spice mixture, also from Holland. The second dish in a row with curry spices brought to the US by the two chefs - a neat idea. In this case, the sauce tasted more of curry and less of Thai spices than the previous dish, but the flavors were very subtle. The turbot was cooked fine and had a light bite but virtually no flavor - not too exciting. Maybe if the sauce had had more of a punch (a similar issue as the previous course), it would have done more to compensate for the lackluster fish. For some reason, the sauce went much better with the crab and clams, that combination really brought out the lovely curry flavor 16.

Dry-aged Hudson Valley duck was topped with a foie gras terrine, shaved Perigord black truffles and was surrounded by a sauce made from duck blood, lime juice and grapes pickled in verjus. The duck was quite nice, lean and with a very crispy skin. The truffles added flavor and earthiness to the sauce - they were put to a much better use than the white truffles had been with the uni. Only the grapes were a bit of a head scratcher, they felt too sweet compared to the rest of the dish and quite acidic - not really the best fit unless they were meant as an in-dish palate cleanser 17.

The actual palate cleanser came next: a satsuma sorbet served atop a meringue disc that in turn covered a sake granité, a rice cream and crunchy puffed rice. The sorbet was jaw-droppingly good: fruity, with a flavor reminiscent of tangerines. The rest of the dish provided the texture: creaminess and a bit of crunch while still keeping the dish light. Barely anything to criticize here, maybe the crunchy rice could have come in slightly larger pieces 19.

A Fuji-san brioche was topped with cardamom, a miso caramel and 10-year-ago Yamazaki whiskey. It was paired with a coconut sorbet that was optionally topped with white truffles from Alba. The brioche was supposedly named after Mount Fuji for its shape - admittedly something hard to see even after the explanation. The chef had kept this dessert from his previous restaurant in Munich, where we had tried it the year before. The brioche was fine: slightly warm, with a chewy, lightly crunchy exterior and an airy interior. It might have been better if these features had been amped up: served even warmer, and with more of a crunch - this brioche felt a bit soft, as if it had been made much earlier in the day. The coconut sorbet was light and sweet and the truffles added some nice nuttiness to it - maybe not the cheapest way to achieve a nutty flavor, but it ended up being very tasty. The brioche and the sorbet were best when they were eaten together. They complemented each other well: cold and hot, nutty and sweet 17.

Three petit fours concluded the dinner. A tiny opera cake was moist and lovely 17. A yuzu praline had a bit of a crunch (rice again?) and a light yuzu flavor 16. Finally, a “Vanillekipferl”, a Christmas-time moon-shaped German/Austrian cookie flavored with vanilla. It was lighter and airier than what I had expected, maybe a bit more heft would have made this even better 15.

After a great dinner, it seemed that pinning down the style of the cuisine might be an exercise of futility: French techniques, Japanese influences, bits and pieces from Germany and Holland? The latter two felt more like an afterthought - used a few times, but not with any consistency. This left me wondering what story the menu wanted to tell. It felt like it wanted to please everyone - past guests of CTBF expecting more of the same and others expecting new influences from the two new chefs. Not exactly a recipe that results in a coherent style. But that might just be a matter of evolution over time.

Overall: This was an enjoyable, seafood-heavy meal of small bites, with great service in a relaxed counter-seating atmosphere. A place that I'd happily return to.

Since I had just visited the new restaurant by CTBF's former chef a few days before, it was natural to try to compare the two. Which one was better? Well, on average, they were arguably not that different. However, at CTBF the highs were higher and the lows were lower. Both are definitely worth a visit, though 17.