Husband-and-wife duo behind fish-and-chips sensation Dame, Eater Best New Restaurant winner Lord’s, and European seafood spot Crevette, Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski talk about what inspired them to open their West Village restaurants as they make the iconic Dame tomato sandwich and Barbuto kale salad.
As Szymanski marinates large tomato steaks in spicy olive oil, herbs, and vinegar, Howard reminisces about eating at least one tomato sandwich every day when they were the only two employees at Dame. Szymanski created the juicy sandwich because they needed a vegetarian option and was inspired by Howard’s obsession with simple tomatoes on toast. They whisk together an aioli with both slow-cooked and raw garlic, as Howard jokes that her husband is known for serving “a bucket of aioli” at every dinner party they throw. After the tomatoes have marinated for hours, they add aioli, tomatoes, lettuce, basil, chives, and crispy shallots onto a toasted sesame seed bun.
The couple discusses trying to eat dinner at home more as they manage newly opened Crevette and their two other restaurants, prioritizing spending time with their one-year-old daughter and expanding her palate with new foods like oysters. Howard says she knew when they first met in 2017 that they would “get married one day and we’re gonna open restaurants together.”
The Barbuto kale salad, first popularized at the namesake restaurant by Jonathan Waxman, is a favorite of Howard’s and was the first dish they made in the Dame restaurant space before they had a full kitchen. For that dish, breadcrumbs are toasted with olive oil, drained, and seasoned. Szymanski whips up a basil, garlic, parmesan, and anchovy dressing as he talks about working as a line cook before operating his own restaurants. Howard talks about how she can’t wait to introduce her daughter to the original salad at Barbuto before Szymanski thinly slices the kale and massages it into the umami-rich dressing. They talk about how the kale salad at Waxman’s decades-old institution has stayed the same throughout the years, with Szymanski calling it “the gold standard,” as they split the tomato sandwich and dig into the nostalgic greens.
Watch the this episode of Meals That Made Us on Eater at Home to see Howard and Szymanski debate who was interested in who first and make tdishes that fed the couple when they began their small restaurant empire together.
