Andrea listened to me and checked out Knife + Fork. I'm not a friend of the chef's just wanted everyone to enjoy the place as much as I did. No publicty fee for me - just some free thyme panacotta please.
Frome Andrea Strong's : the strong buzz
Knife and Fork
About three weeks ago I got an email from a reader telling me about this little place in the East Village called Knife and Fork. He said it was great, that the chef was a friend and that he was trying to drum up some word of mouth for them. I wrote back thanking him for the tip and made a mental note to check it out. (I have a lot of mental notes. I seem to lose track of them. I’ll have to make a mental note to be more diligent about following through on them.) Anyway, about a week later, I read about Knife and Fork on Daily Candy. Then the next day, a publicist emailed me about it as well. Hmmm. Well, word on the street is great and while I have not been yet here are the juicy details:
The Chef: The chef/owner Damien Brassel is from Ireland. He’s 30. Apparently by the time he was 20, he was the head chef at Peacock Alley, a Michelin star restaurant in Dublin. Somebody is an overachiever. By the time I was twenty my goal was to wake up in time for lunch. Anyway, Damien has worked and staged at a number of one and two-Michelin star restaurants in Europe and Australia, including Peacock Alley and Guibaud in Dublin, Pierre Kaufman’s La Tante Claire, Fisk in Copenhagen with Nicoli Kirk, and Tetsuya Wakuda’s Tetsuya in Sydney. In New York, since 2004, he worked at Bobby Flay’s restaurants and with Patricia Yeo at Sapa.
The Space: Sweet, breezy, and casually rustic, the right vibe for the gently price fare. You can have yourself a 6-course tasting menu for $45.
Wine: The list put together by Michelin star sommelier Frederic Grappe of Orrery in London.
The Food: The food is called modern European in press materials, which add: “Damien has been influenced by modern cooking techniques used by Pierre Gagnaire, Heston Blumenthal and Marc Veyrat.” But Knife and Fork is not meant not as a stage for experimentation. This is a neighborhood restaurant—an ambitious one but not in the Fat Duck vein. Signatures include warm goat cheese with polenta and asparagus ($11), torchon of foie gras with saffron poached pineapple ($14), curry dusted skate with lobster infused reduction and a citrus, fennel and mixed herb salad ($20), and lavender rubbed duck breast with caramelized parsnips and red onion marmalade ($22). For brunch, there’s French toast “egg in a hole” with crispy bacon ($9), and seared polenta with pancetta, spinach and poached eggs with coriander hollandaise ($10). Damien is also working on a bar menu to be introduced in the next two weeks, including octopus and duck tongues with fresh marjoram.
Logistics: Knife and Fork is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday and brunch Saturday & Sunday. Knife and Fork is located at 108 East 4th Street, 212-228-4885.