Olmsted’s eating room.
Photograph: Nitzan Rubin
When the restaurant Olmsted opened in Prospect Heights in 2016, it appeared designed to provide a big contingent of Brooklyn diners of the time precisely what they needed. Between them, companions Greg Baxtrom and Max Katzenberg had labored at spots like Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Alinea, Per Se, and the unique incarnation of Torrisi. (A 3rd accomplice, Ian Rothman, had been the horticulturist at Atera.) They introduced all of that fine-dining expertise to bear at a restaurant that was one thing like Stone Barns Lite, meshing locavore cooking and over-the-top hospitality right into a package deal that was reasonably priced and accessible sufficient for neighbors to drop in at any time when they favored. The most costly merchandise on the opening menu was guinea hen, served two methods, for $24.
Jonathan Gold as soon as noticed that the “first duty of any nice restaurant” — the tier of high-caliber, high-expense institution to which the spots on the companions’ résumés belong — “is to maintain you within the bubble, the soft-serve cocoon of phantasm the place you neglect the world exists for something however your pleasure.” Baxtrom and Katzenberg understood how to do this with a restricted finances. I don’t keep in mind in the event that they even took reservations the primary time I went. Strolling in, my spouse and I had been instructed there’d be a await the desk — and had been then ushered into Olmsted’s manicured again backyard for snacks and drinks among the many greenery, subsequent to the restaurant’s two pet quails. We had been within the bubble; we had been fast followers.
The meals, typically served on kaleidoscope-colored plates, at all times appeared equally designed to make prospects really feel, above all else, delighted: There have been carrot-orange crêpes blanketing heat clams. Crab rangoons full of kale served in customized takeout packing containers. Lengthy strands of rutabaga handled like fettuccine Alfredo, showered with cheese and truffles. For dessert: lavender fro-yo.
Every thing was Hamilton-grade earnest, and the entire endeavor may have been twee to a fault — in colder months, sizzling cocoa was served in mismatched mugs, together with one that includes Baxtrom in a cape; “Tremendous Dork” was written under — however Baxtrom and Katzenberg pulled it off as a result of they nailed the element that the dearer locations the place they’d labored acknowledged: Prospects ought to go away a meal feeling actually good. For a time, the restaurant was probably the most healthful social gathering on the town. Mates of mine, earlier than they moved to Manhattan and had a child, celebrated birthdays with dinner on the bar every year. Visiting dad and mom most likely made up 85 % of Olmsted’s buyer base.
DIY s’mores within the heated again backyard.
Photograph: Nitzan Rubin
In an Instagram put up, Baxtrom wrote that his determination to shut the restaurant later this month was primarily based on quite a lot of components; it was unhappy however not stunning to listen to that the place struggled. Rumors had been circulating that the restaurant had some hassle paying its payments, and to this exterior observer, the place by no means fairly discovered its groove after the pandemic. A part of that is because of diners’ altering tastes. Whimsy doesn’t promote prefer it used to. There was a marked shift away from cheffed-up originality and again towards the acquainted: Roasted hen with French fries and an important platter of shrimp cocktail maintain extra cachet than guinea hen with ramp mousse and scallop skewers in corn husks (one other Olmsted favourite, and, if reminiscence serves, a intelligent cost-cutting technique since Baxtrom was in a position to purchase broken scallops that his fish man wouldn’t in any other case have offered). Throughout COVID, Katzenberg left the restaurant group, which by then included a French restaurant throughout the road and additional expanded to incorporate a bakery–slash–pizza tavern down the road and a Rockefeller Middle restaurant that itself felt a bit like Olmsted Lite on the outset (that restaurant, 5 Acres, remains to be open with a menu that’s now heavy on consolation meals).
The final time I went to Olmsted was for Alinea’s pop-up this previous spring. We’d been ushered out of Olmsted correct and right into a separate restaurant throughout the road, commandeered for the month, for dessert. Grant Achatz got here out, stern and solemn, to start spooning and drizzling Alinea’s signature served-all-over-the-table dessert. Baxtrom was subsequent to him, spooning and smiling. I’m positive he had quite a bit on his thoughts, however when he noticed my spouse and me, he simply had one query: “Hey, guys! Are you having a very good time?” In fact we had been, we stated. And we actually meant it.
EAT LIKE THE EXPERTS.
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