ABC Kitchen

Last week several co-workers and I had dinner at ABC Kitchen. ABC Kitchen is the new restaurant from powerhouse chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and recently won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. There isn’t much I can say about how incredible ABC Kitchen is that hasn’t already been said by other bloggers and food writers. I had been looking forward to dining there for months and the meal surpassed every expectation I had.
From the outside, ABC Kitchen is easy to pass by when you’re walking along 18th street near Union Square. Once inside though you’re transported into a completely different atmosphere that is rustic yet sophisticated. The place screams “shabby-chic” from the old wooden beams in the ceiling to the mismatched flowered china. If Anthropolgie were to decorate a restaurant, ABC Kitchen would be the result.

We had a group of ten people which allowed us to enjoy a family style tasting menu. We shared 7 dishes, plus a side and three desserts. My favorites were a tie between the sugar snap pea salad and the roast carrot and avocado salad. We then each had our own entrée. I chose the organic fried chicken and absolutely loved the spiciness of the basil and hot butter sauce. It came with spinach that didn’t seem fried, but had a texture very similar to the fried spinach at Rasika in D.C. Everything was incredibly fresh and creative.

Although the menu changes almost daily due to the sourcing of local and fresh ingredients, below is the menu we enjoyed last week:

Shared Family Style Market Table Course:
· crab toast with lemon aioli
· still warm fresh mozzarella, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper
Shared Family Style Appetizers:
· sugar snap pea salad with parmesan dressing and herbs
· roast carrot and avocado salad, crunchy seeds, sour cream and citrus
· pretzel dusted calamari
· strawberries, goat cheese
· spinach and goat cheese with herbs pizza
Entrees (Choose 1):
· slowly cooked salmon with creamed favas and mint
· fried organic chicken, wild spinach, basil and hot sauce butter
· black sea bass with chilies and herbs, baby market potatoes and spinach
Shared side dishes:
· roasted asparagus
Shared Family style dessert
· chocolate cake with malted chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallow icing
· cookie plate with lemon drop, dark chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chip pecan bar and oatmeal cherry
· warm doughnuts with vanilla cream and bacon fudge sauce