Since long before he turned vegan, Eleven Madison Park Chef Daniel Humm had his eye on an as yet unrealized address on Park Avenue for his second restaurant. The planned two-story venture, which was to occupy square footage in a full-block skyscraper going up at Park and 55th Street, was earmarked for a 2018 opening. Last summer the deal quietly fell through, although the news went unreported until Monday, when the New York Post wrote that “Park Avenue’s heavy-hitters won’t be noshing on plants, beets and seeds at the glamorous new office skyscraper at 425 Park Avenue after all.”
Inhabitants of the gleaming 670,000 square-foot tower won’t go hungry, however. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, another power player, is in talks with the building’s holding company to open his own restaurant in the 14,000 square-foot space.
Hot Mess
Brooklyn Hots, a new Clinton Hill restaurant that is slated to open today, borrows its name from Nick Tahou Hots, a Rochester restaurant famous for its “Garbage Plate: Picture a bunless hamburger on a plate crammed to capacity with potatoes and/or some other starch, condiments, and whatever else will fit — barely.
The new establishment will specialize in its own garbage plates, though the dishes will be billed as “Trash Plates” to avoid copyright infringement. The contents of the plate will be DIY. You select a protein (choices include hamburger, red hots, grilled chicken, and eggs), two sides (fries, macaroni salad, cole slaw), and a topping (raw onion, mustard, hot sauce).
Owner Brian Heiss, a Rochester native, emphasizes that his version of a garbage plate, unlike the original, will eschew processed foods in favor of “highlight seasonality, high-quality meat sourcing, and, yes, fresh vegetables.”
Brooklyn Hots, 291 Greene Avenue, Brooklyn, 917-791-5035.
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