Two Star Success for ABC Cocina

[benjamin petit for the ny times] dan kluger"For his next trick, Jean-Georges will open a Spanish-inspired, small plates restaurant." These were the words we started tossing around last summer after we caught wind that Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger would be opening a restaurant in the former Pipa space inside the ABC Carpet & Home building. Now that ABC Cocina is open, and has been for three months, Pete Wells has filed a review.

"There’s an alchemy at work at ABC Cocina," he writes, "The kind that can turn the last thing you’d want to order into the first thing you’ll ask for next time around. For me, it was the vegetables with brown rice, which I expected would taste like a tea made by steeping the yellowed pages of the “Moosewood Cookbook” in warm kombucha and straining it through Pigpen’s bandanna. It was, in fact, one of the freshest, cleanest vegetable dishes I’ve tasted all summer."

The success with which Vongerichten and Kluger coax flavors from farm fresh produce is no surprise – their scope of vegetable prowess has been on display at ABC Kitchen since 2010. A few things miss the mark at Cocina, but the restaurant is run by chefs that have a focused and learned approach to cooking – one they have built into a restaurant that New Yorkers are excited to eat at. ABC Cocina is another in the growing canvas of two-star restaurants opening in the city. More on that here. [NYTimes]

Jean-Georges Wants in on the Megamarket Movement

Jean-Georges Vongerichten told the Post yesterday about his plans to open a market in the basement of ABC Carpet & Home on Broadway. The 8,500 square-foot space was home to the Conran Shop before it closed in July. Vongerichten notes the "success of Eataly" in the Post article and goes on to say, “It’s just an idea now. But food is a part of life. People are foodies and love to shop for food. We will keep it very local and very American."

The pending market will sell local, artisanal products and be the third to open from Vongerichten in the ABC Carpet & Home building. ABC Kitchen came first when it opened to rave reviews in 2010. The second, ABC Cocina, is yet to open, but will do so early next year in the Pipa space on East 19th Street. The same ingredient-driven approach to cooking that defines ABC Kitchen will inspire the Spanish-influenced small plates that will make up ABC Cocina's menu.

Jean-Georges To Open ABC Cocina

Jean-Georges opened ABC Kitchen in March of 2010. When the restaurant opened, he refered to it as his "new, farm-to-table restaurant," with a "market-driven menu." Shortly after opening, Sam Sifton gave the restaurant two stars. 

In lieu of the restaurant's continuing success, Jean-Georges will take over the Pipa space at ABC Carpet & Home. Pipa, known "for its innovative take on traditional Spanish tapas," will close this winter and reopen early next year, after Paulette Cole, CEO and Creative Director of ABC Home, redoes the space. She is responsible for the farmhouse effect and recycled materials that adorn ABC Kitchen's interior. The new project will be called ABC Cocina and look to Spanish speaking countries for inspiration for its small plates menu.