The menu itself is split into five sections: crudo, breads from sister bakery Thea, wood-fired vegetables, and mains like chicken and dry-aged fish cooked on the grill and in a high-heat oven. Prep begins with marinating a spatchcocked chicken that stands out on the fish-heavy menu. The chicken sits in a marinade of lemons, olive oil, Serrano peppers, thyme, and rosemary for three days, instilling a deep flavor. The chefs cook lima beans overnight in a sealed oven with two burning logs of woods and then combine them with chicken broth to make the perfect accompaniment for the grilled chicken. Jumping over to the bakery, only two doors down, Blechman checks in on the sourdough that is used for his ever-popular brown butter toast with whipped ricotta.
Dry-aged fish turns into crispy roasted branzino and red snapper ceviche with grilled pineapple, basil, and a lime vinaigrette. The entirety of fish are used throughout the restaurant, with the gelatin from cooked down fish heads turned into a creamy sauce and dried out fish bones combining with dry seaweed to make a slowly simmered dashi broth. As the line begins to fill up outside, Blechman prepares a Moroccan fish stew with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and the more untraditional ingredient of gochujang (Korean red chili paste). Everyone gets amped up for service as the fish stew is finished with a quickly seared tilefish that is placed on the slow-cooked vegetables and topped off with toasted cassava flour. More mains fly out of the oven: butterflied trout covered in harissa and chermoula, bone-in branzino that is dry-aged for four days with rosemary, and the slow-roasted chicken tossed with charred carrots in an anchovy sauce.
“When guests come here, I think that our hope is just like for them to really be together, enjoying their company of each other, enjoying the food, exploring their palates,” Blechman says.
Watch the latest episode of Mise en Place to see how Blechman and his team thoughtfully prep every incredible sauce, dry-aged piece of fish, and fresh slice of sourdough at one of the hottest restaurants in Brooklyn.
