Meat Restaurant Promises To Live Up to Its Name

By Mica Soffer – Publisher, COLlive.com
Photos: Baruch Ezagui

“Meat,” what promises to be New York’s trendy new destination for fine kosher dining and an elevated food experience, is aiming to live up to its name when it opens in Crown Heights later this month.

The brand new, exquisitely designed restaurant, is a result of a 5-year labor of love for famed Brooklyn restauranteur Danny Branover, known for his groundbreaking “Basil Pizza and Wine Bar” and “Bakerie.”

The restaurant, built by Moshe Weiss of Blackstone Contractors and designed by Szandra Toth of Cl-oth Interiors, both Brooklyn-based, maintains a warm yet modern feel, with elegant fixtures, cozy bench seating along the walls, and an intimate ambiance reminiscent of a European eatery.

Particular attention was paid to the detail of the decor, from the hand-painted murals in the restrooms depicting people and buildings of Brooklyn, to the Italian china and glassware, and the warm-green marble tabletops.

But what stands out most about Meat is the menu, boldly different than the average kosher restaurant, and with nothing that you’ve seen before. There are no burgers, no fries – just superbly fine dining.

The menu contains appetizers like hand-chopped prime filet with bulgar wheat and Tamarind, spices and Zaatar, seared veal sweetbreads with lentils and roasted potatoes, Jaspered cauliflower with smoked Eggplant, lamb tongue confit with black garlic and sweet potatoes, a colorful beef tartar with egg yolk and wild rice cracker, and beef carpaccio with porcini powder, chicken caviar and shallots.

Entrees are delicately and artistically presented and include roasted duck breast accompanied by assorted beets, balsamic and blueberry sauce, charcoal-roasted lamb chops with Jerusalem artichoke cream, stuffed onion, preserved lemons, and mint sauce, ribeye steak with fingerling potatoes, cherry confit, and bone marrow. The lamb chops are aged before grilling, so they are a beautiful pink color yet melt in your mouth.

The menu was conceived and created by Executive Chef Reem Look. Originally from Jerusalem, he has worked as a chef in some of Israel’s finest restaurants, such as the King David Hotel, King’s Garden in Jerusalem, and other well known five-star restaurants.

Look is hesitant to label the menu, since even though it could loosely be called Mediterranean Fusion, it’s really not any single style of culture that is represented, he explained.

Instead, he calls it a mixture of his favorite dishes and flavors, representing many different countries: from Israel to Egypt, North Africa to France, from Morrocco to Turkey, among others.

“I don’t want to limit it by calling it any sort of fusion,” he told COLlive.com in an interview. “It’s really just my own creations.” From what we previewed, the menu is a delight for the senses, with each dish more beautiful and flavorful than the next.

As would be expected, the owner and chef say the meat they will serve will only be the highest grade cuts, aged to perfection in their specially built aging room. Customers will be allowed to view meat such as ribeye, duck, sausages, lamb, and veal through large glass windows on the restaurant’s lower level.

A specialty is both dry and wet-aged ribeye steak, which is rarely found in the kosher restaurant industry. The wet aging process ensures the meat truly absorbs the flavor, Chef Look explains.

Some of his favorite dishes are the lamb chops, Spanish traditional stuffed onions, stuffed with rice, pine nuts, and ground lamb, as well as lamb tongue, which Look says took months of research because he was told it was not available. “Do you sell lamb? So where are the tounges?” he insisted in one of his conversations with suppliers. He finally was able to procure the delicacy, the first time in the Kosher market, he says.

The wine list hails from Italy, France, Israel, and Australia, and the waitstaff and bar offer a full selection of mixed drinks. The “Golden Cage” dessert is a feast for the eyes and the palate, with luscious warm melted chocolate over chocolate mousse.

“I’ve eaten in the finest restaurants around the world, from France, to Italy, to the US West Coast, to New York City,” server Tiago Asfora from Recife, Brazil, told COLlive. “I have never eaten food as incredible as this anywhere in the world – and I’m a foodie,” he says.

Meat
123 Kingston Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11213
Under OU Supervision
Glatt Kosher, Chassidishe Shechita (ask for Lubavitcher Shechita options)
Hashgacha Temidis

Meat is expected to open on August 15th.
Seating by reservation only, online at meatny.com.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/meatny