FOUND: ethereal spaghetti

Anton's, L'Industrie, Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, elevated slice shops, The Locavore Guide, Lower Highline, MORE

Oct 31, 2023

∙ Paid

RESTAURANTS • FOUND Plate

Love and anchovies

In my early twenties, when I was cooking for one in the Boerum Hill walk-up I shared with my brother, I would often make this addictive, dead-simple pasta:

Heat olive oil and sliced garlic in a pan. Add anchovies. Once the anchovies have melted, add spaghetti and a little reserved pasta water. Try not to eat it all in one sitting.

The spaghetti anchoiade at Anton’s in the West Village is a very grown-up version of this dish — silky and rich, the spaghetti cooked exactly right. It’s on my shortest list of favorite NYC dishes, and is best shared with a friend or loved one.

Saturday night, my birthday, my wife and I ate it at the bar after a day spent driving to and from Port Jefferson for the memorial of an old friend who had died too young.

Anton’s opened in 2019 but feels like it’s been on the corner of Hudson and W. 11th forever. The space was once Frankies 570, and before that, Hudson Corner Cafe — a less ambitious neighborhood hang where my wife worked briefly as a waitress in her early twenties, newly arrived from Michigan. Not long after, the friend from Port Jefferson became her roommate. She’s the one who taught her how to be a New Yorker.

We considered other, more current options for dinner on our way back into the city that night. But we were tired and happily ended up on this perfect West Village corner, sharing this ethereal spaghetti that reminded us of walk-ups and waitress jobs and old friends. –Josh Albertson

→ Anton's (West Village) • 570 Hudson St. • spaghetti anchoiade, $23 • Resy.

RESTAURANTS • Intel

→ UNLUCKY STRIKE: We braced for arrival at The Ruby (Soho, above), a new cocktail bar on Grand St., expecting the bustling Saturday night energy of the former tenant, Keith McNally’s iconic Lucky Strike. Instead: an empty room, a QR-code menu, and sad finishes. We checked our phones to make sure we were at the right spot, the one that everyone blurbed earlier this month. “This place cannot be on your list,” my companion said. Noted. The fries, however, were first rate. –Josh Albertson

→ FALL RESTAURANT RUSH: After a quick breather, fall restaurant openings again pick up steam as November dawns. Café Carmellini (Nomad) in the new Fifth Avenue Hotel debuts Thursday night (reserve). Chef Marcus Samuellson’s Metropolis (Wall Street) at the Perelman Performing Arts Center transitions into full opening (reserve). And in Brooklyn, Swoony’s (Columbia St. Waterfront), the new continental restaurant around the corner from Cafe Spaghetti, opens Wednesday night (reserve).

NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Six months in at new Superiority Burger: breakfast and lunch coming soon • Momofuku Ko serves its last meal this Saturday • Chef Victoria Blamey (Chumley’s, Gotham Bar & Grill) is back • Can I get a good New York bagel at Murray’s Bagels? • Whatever happened to Da Silvano? • The Perfect Manhattan is perfect.

WORK • Neighborhood Report

Big Little Island

Shopify is the latest tech company to relocate to the far west side of Manhattan, signing a 36K SF lease at 85 10th Ave. (also home to Google and Clear), at a price reportedly north of $100 per square foot.

In today’s market, where office options are plentiful, this emergent corner of Manhattan — with its shiny new parks and walkways (see Little Island, above), river views, haute food halls, and class A+ buildings — makes a lot of sense. But what to call it. Even Vornado, the developer of 85 10th, won’t commit:

An 11-story prime office and retail building, 85 Tenth Avenue is positioned in the creative heart of Manhattan, directly adjacent to Chelsea Market, between West Chelsea and the Meatpacking District.

Tough needle to thread. But sure, we’ll try:

Hudson River South
Lower Highline
Ex Posto Facto

And yours?

WORK LINKS: 16-story office building 555 Greenwich opens in Hudson Square • Iconiq Capital inks first lease at revamped 360 Park Avenue South • At the Empire State Building, LinkedIn expands and Starbucks moves offices • Midtown’s office market finishing a decent 2023 • More businesses are offering menopause benefits.

WORK • Tuesday Routine

Locavore’s dilemma

CAROLINE WEAVER, founder, The Locavore Guide
Neighborhood you work in: Union Square

It’s Tuesday morning, where are you working?
I desperately need separation between my working space and my home, so I go into my small office Monday and Thursday, and spend the rest of my days walking or out exploring and creating content. Weather permitting, Tuesday is almost always a “walking day” for me. My business, The Locavore Guide, is a searchable database of independent retail shops all over the city, which I find and document IRL, on-foot. I’ve covered about 75% of the city so far and am walking every remaining neighborhood until I’ve seen it all. On this particular Tuesday my goal is to finish the eastern sliver of Borough Park and get started on Bensonhurst.

What’s the Tuesday morning scene at your workplace?
My workplace is the city itself, and the scenery changes depending on the neighborhood I’m working in. There are two constants: time spent on the subway, and how I prepare for the day. Since all I’ve got left are pretty far-out neighborhoods, I spend about two hours on the subway each day, during which I rest my brain by listening to music that makes me feel good and observing my surroundings.

Typically, I wear the same outfit every day and pack the same things. Light layers, a hat, a pair of comfy shoes, which I rotate so my feet don’t get too used to them. I keep my EDC light: a charging pack, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, a small notebook, and a pen. All of the data is logged into a Google form on my phone, and I’m constantly taking photos, so my battery drains quickly. The photo above is from a fruit stand in Bensonhurst yesterday.

What’s on the agenda for today?
Most mornings I’ll go to The Well on East 15th St. for some sort of yoga or exercise class. It’s a real urban oasis and I love finding a moment just to chill there at the start of the day. I’m not a breakfast person, but on walking days I try to make it my biggest meal of the day, so I met a friend for breakfast at Friend of a Farmer in Gramercy.

I’ll walk until 6-ish, when most shops close and the sky starts to get dark. As the days get shorter, I have to be a little more strategic when it comes to timing, while still working around what the typical working hours are for the neighborhood I’m in. I don’t go into every single shop, but I collect their address, name, and assign categories and subcategories from the sidewalk. By the end of the day, I’ve covered nearly 12 miles and logged 224 business, which is about my average for a full day out.

What’s for lunch?
I skipped lunch because I find that it slows me down. Sometimes this work feels like an endurance sport and I have to keep my momentum going. Instead, I snacked throughout the day, which included: an Asian pear from a fruit stand, a very good arancino from La Bella Pizza on 20th Ave. (Bath Beach), and my favorite bodega snack, a Rolet’s Big Beef Chevy (which I like to call a Brooklyn Slim Jim) and a Hal’s Seltzer.

Any plans tonight?
I’m looking forward to a restful evening. I’ll make dinner (steelhead trout and delicata squash from the Union Square Greenmarket) and work on the baby blanket I’m knitting from gorgeous butter yellow washable wool yarn that I bought at Downtown Yarns on Avenue A. Currently, I’m in the middle of a round of ketamine treatment at Nushama, so I’m trying to take it easy, but my normal weeknight dinner go-tos are Via Della Pace or Soba-ya. I love a cool new restaurant as much as the next New Yorker, but find so much comfort and community in neighborhood mainstays.

GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Bang & Olufsen relocating in Midtown • Auction sneak peek: Barbara Walters had good taste • Is it gift guide season? Goop votes yes • It’s also engagement season (is it?): Here’s what to get your soon-to-be-married friends • Why Rimowa decided to go shell for leather • Food halls conquer the suburbs.

RESTAURANTS • First Word

Back at the adult table

The Skinny: The French-Japanese tasting counter inside a Hudson Yards grocery store, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, is back after a brief closure and a refreshing of the interior following an acrimonious split with star chef César Ramirez over the summer.

The Vibe: Past aisles of potato chips and pop, the door to Chef’s Table divides chaos from calm. Enter to find a 20-seat, U-shaped counter, which dominates the restaurant’s dining room. Once colored black and brown, the lab-like space now glows white. Behind a long white pass, chefs work silently, organizing A5 wagyu tartare crowned with wasabi and caviar (above) and ikura tartlettes, horseradish-laced and dusted with dill powder.

The Food: Over the 14 years since it first opened in Downtown Brooklyn, Chef’s Table earned a reputation for serving what may have been New York’s most flawless tasting menu. The new co-executive chef team of Marco Prins and Max Natmessnig (both Chef’s Table vets), continues the precise cooking with a 14-course tasting menu ($430 per), with more global influence. The restaurant’s most iconic course, the uni bite, remains sublime, and now features a waffle base. New plates include binchotan-charcoal-kissed bluefin tuna in a jalapeño-accented aguachile vinaigrette and a buttery grilled Norwegian langoustine.

The Verdict: It’s a lot of legacy to live up to, but so far so fare. –Kat Odell

→ Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare (Hudson Yards) • 95 Guernsey St. • OpenTable.

ASK FOUND

Hit reply or or email found@foundny.com with questions and/or answers.

Three new questions that require your immediate attention:

Can you suggest an elevated sports bar to watch the games this weekend?
What are the best women’s clothing boutiques in the city right now?
I want to do some holiday shopping IRL. What are the best specialty stores for unusual products?

RESTAURANTS • The Nines