Restaurant Spotlight: Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare
February 2022
Take one look at the Instagram feed for Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, and you might think you’ve landed on the account of a contemporary art museum. Pink and pinker cubes of bluefin tuna and Japanese hamachi form pyramids on a thin wisp of a tart. A tiramisu on a ceramic-industrial pedestal looks like a Louise Bourgeois or a Yayoi Kusama — and if these creations by star chef César Ramirez look like works of art, the accolades that Ramirez keeps attracting attest to the fact that they taste even better than they look.
While Ramirez is racking up awards — like three stars from the world-famous Michelin Guide or the No. 2 spot on OAD’s list of the 150 top restaurants in North America — residents of the NYC luxury rentals at 555TEN in Manhattan can venture over to his rarified exposed kitchen behind the Brooklyn Fare grocery store without leaving their neighborhood.
The setup is a 20-seat counter where you can dine on Ramirez’s French-inflected Japanese-inspired tasting menu, which changes with the seasons and the inspirations of the kitchen. On a given night, you might encounter trout roe tartlet, chawanmushi with foie gras, Hokkaido uni with black truffle, Miyazaki Wagyu with daikon and horseradish, white truffle ice cream, or a frozen soufflé.
Ramirez will be present, cooking behind the counter, announcing the dishes as they come out, and chatting with guests. Ryan Sutton of Eater, who has crowned the restaurant “your four-star Per Se replacement,” finds Ramirez as affable as he is talented, a true artist satisfying his diners’ craving for innovation, as well as their palates.
Of this unparalleled New York gastronomic experience, Adam Platt of New York Magazine writes, “It’s a pleasure to watch the chef and his crack staff turn out a 20th century-style gourmet dinner (you’ll find barely cooked lobster on the menu, truffles upon truffles, A5-grade beef flown in from Japan) with a kind of practiced, even balletlike grace.” Critics are raving not only about the food but about the inherent drama of the experience, which, as Sutton has noted, is quickly becoming a New York classic.
The restaurant’s Hell’s Kitchen location, behind the Brooklyn Fare grocery store, harkens back to the original restaurant and grocery location in Brooklyn. This means two things if you are a resident of the 555TEN luxury rentals in Manhattan: The first is that you can peruse the aisles before settling in for dinner, and the second is that you can find inspiration at one of the city’s most masterfully curated food stores any night of the week. Like the no-fee luxury rentals at 555TEN, Brooklyn Fare is changing what it means to live your best life in New York.