Fresh spice
Passerine, Noma Kaffe, Phoenix Palace, Haar and Co, best Sichuan restaurants, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Rich palette
The Skinny: Chetan Shetty’s food has long defined what modern Indian cuisine looks like on a global stage: nuanced, playful, unafraid to flirt with ingredients like shiso and truffle. Opened in November, Passerine is Shetty’s latest project with his wife/beverage director April Busch, and it’s quickly becoming New York’s latest Indian restaurant darling.
The Vibe: On East 20th St. just off Park, Passerine draws inspiration from the Union Square Greenmarket and Shetty’s mother, who pounds the spices that flavor the local produce and proteins. If the rich, vibrant flavor of those seasonings could be distilled into a color palette, it would be Passerine’s, jewel-toned in rich greens and browns. Inside its doors, a small plush lounge enveloped in bold botanical wallpaper is anchored by two low-slung L-shaped sofas that connect to a buzzy 13-seat bar. Beyond sits the 64-seat dining room, brimming with energy. The restaurant feels warm, employees look genuinely happy, and at 6p on a recent Wednesday, the place was packed.
The Food: Few Indian restaurants in New York offer a tasting menu, but Shetty’s modern, produce-driven approach fits the form. A seven-course option ($135 per) kicks off with a delicate, Kaluga-caviar-capped raw tuna tartlette imbued with chilis, sundried garlic, and onion, plus clove, pickled ginger, and avocado. Later dishes include a rich, 14-hour-braised short rib over an airy corn espuma, enhanced with a cardamom-accented toasty pasilla chili sauce and a roasted corn salsa.
Guests who order à la carte begin their meal with a delicate, flower-shaped murukku rice cracker, its crisp latticework cradling a silky avocado purée laced with cilantro, ginger, chili, and lime, adorned with applewood smoke-imbued trout roe and a few tangy drops of sour tamarind and hibiscus. Starters include a mini, fluffy fermented rice pancake uttapam shaped into a taco, filled with a soft cheesy potato mash that’s flavored with turmeric, curry leaf, and Comté (a Kaluga caviar supplement is extra).
There’s also Shetty’s chicken kofta, a green cardamom-enhanced chicken dumpling flavored with chilies and fragrant Burgundy black truffles, topped with pilsner beer-pickled yellow oyster mushrooms and finished with a generous blanket of more black truffle.
The Drink: Bar director Mario Castro's spice-backed cocktail program is enchanting. Consider the Green Magpie, which blends flavors of cilantro, green cardamom, and lime with rum, or the Calvados- and Madeira-fortified Pied Triller, which incorporates apple and spiced maple syrup.
The Verdict: One of the city’s most vibrant and thoughtful interpretations of Indian cuisine, grounded in local produce, a splash of luxury, and a confident hand with spice. –Kat Odell
→ Passerine (Flatiron) • 36 E 20th St • Tue-Wed & Sun 5-10p, Thu-Sat 5-1030p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • The Ticket
Beefsteak by Marc Murphy • multi-course beefsteak dinner, tickets inclusive of beverages, branded apron, and beer stein • Marc179 (Tribeca) • Fri 03/28 @ 7p, $295 per
Zaynab Issa Cookbook Pop-Up Dinner at HUDA • 4-course menu from Zaynab’s new cookbook, Third Culture Cooking; ticket includes signed copy of book • HUDA (Williamsburg) • Thur 04/03 @ 5p, $105 per
Madeline Tea Party • Madeline-inspired tea party in shadow of Ludwig Bemelman’s iconic Madeline murals w/ curated sweets for kids • Bemelmans Bar (Upper East Side) • Sat-Sun 04/19-04/20 @ 10a & 12p, $150 per
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: London’s Dishoom closing in on NYC site for possible 2026 opening • Rising from the dead again, M Wells popping up at Bushwick’s New York Distilling Company • The sidewalk parking ticket machine vexing Cafe Luxembourg • Do upscale bars have a hospitality problem? • How craft brewers found themselves on the wrong end of gentrification.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUNDLISTING
Thicker, fuller hair through Hims & Hers
PERSONALIZED REGROWTH TREATMENT OPTIONS: Want thicker, fuller hair in just 3-6 months?** Through Hims & Hers, you can get access to personalized, clinically proven treatments from the comfort of home. No office visits, no insurance hassles — just real results. Get started today. [spon]
→ Order: Hims & Hers.
**Based on separate individual studies of oral minoxidil and oral finasteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information.
WORK • Tuesday Routine
Family meal
PETER SOM • cookbook author, lifestyle & fashion person
Neighborhood you work & live in: West Village
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My commute is very short since I work from home. Before I do anything, it's freshly ground beans (La Colombe is my go-to) for a cup of French press coffee. I usually take a few minutes to do the NYT Spelling Bee — but I’m so busy with preparations for my upcoming cookbook launch today I open my laptop and watch the flood of emails come in. Deep breath!
What’s on the agenda for today?
Planning for the launch of my book, Family Style (on sale now -ed.). It’s amazing how something I’ve worked on for two-plus years (which is quite a slow burn when coming from fashion where collections are cranked out four times a year) is finally out in the world. I recorded a podcast with The Cookery Podcast with Suzy Chase, then I’m off to see my pal Wilson Tang for a walk through at Cha Cha Tang — the restaurant he runs with John McDonald. It’s such a perfect vibe and a perfect place, all I’m adding is flowers from Pop-Up Florist.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Cafe Luxembourg post-ballet for a martini and shrimp cocktail at the bar — it’s my go-to spot pre or post anything Lincoln Center. I’m excited for dinner at my friend Angie Mar’s restaurant Le B the following night, and on Friday I’ll be at one of my favorite new restaurants, Phoenix Palace in Chinatown, for my friend’s birthday. Saturday, I’ll be going to Omakaseed — it's an all-vegan sushi restaurant in Midtown. And I recently grabbed a burger on the Upper East Side at Donahue’s — super low-key old-school, which I love (and is getting rarer and rarer in NYC).
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
Seeing the NYC Ballet for an all-Balanchine night, including his iconic work, “Firebird.” I always love going to Lincoln Center — walking across the plaza is such a New York moment. I also just got tickets to the Park Avenue Armory for artist Anne Imhof’s Doom: House of Hope.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
My barber shop, Haar and Co, on Christopher Street. The owner Michael and his team are the best, and the music’s always on point. Whenever I get my haircut I always swing by [the bookstore] Three Lives and Company around the corner.
WORK LINKS: Extell buys final plot for full-block 5th Ave tower, future home to Manhattan’s first Ikea • Does Printemps mark the beginning of a new retail era in Wall Street? • We’re on track for gender workplace equality by mid-22nd century • The ‘path to low-level fortune and fame’ as a LinkedIn influencer.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Larder
The wait is Noma
Noma Kaffe is the freshly minted subscription coffee arm of René Redzepi’s famed Copenhagen restaurant. And true to Noma form, the service already has a waitlist. Subscribers who made the cut will receive monthly deliveries of two 250g bags for $65 (including shipping), designed for filter-style brewing. The team promises the waitlist will move, with new slots opening each month.
Carolyne Lane, who ran the restaurant’s coffee and tea program for the past six years, heads up the Kaffe, which roasts its beans just a few minutes away from the restaurant under the supervision of head roaster Alistair Hesp. “We value clarity in flavor,” says Lane, explaining Noma’s mission to “taste a coffee’s origin in the cup.” This translates to light-roasted beans and coffees with a tea-like quality that offer nuanced, delicate cups with tastes of cherries and jasmine.
The project is sourcing beans from a number of locales, including Mexico, where they procured 20 distinct nano lots from indigenous Tzeltal and Tzotzil communities. Drink up. –Kat Odell
→ Shop: Noma Kaffe • monthly subscriptions from $65 per.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Red Hook distillery Van Brunt Stillhouse closes, bottles surge in price • Gift and stationery boutique Pink Olive set for East Village return • Share of Ferrari owners under 40 surges • I became obsessed with fashion in my 50s • Hot in decluttering: Norwegian Life-Cleaning • Are your pants a symphony?
ASK FOUND
Today, a desperate request from a FOUND NY subscriber:
What restaurant should we take our picky kids to that’s also somewhere I actually want to eat?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@foundny.com.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurants, Sichuan
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC’s best (here including sleeper with a mapo tofu that is the talk of the FOUND editor channel). Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Hui (Upper East Side), Uptown Sichuan w/ exceptional dry pot stir-fries