Summer time on the Cape this isn’t. Dinner at Smithereens, which occupies a darkish, subterranean house on East ninth Avenue, is nearer to eating belowdecks on the Pequod. I as soon as described the restaurant as a “galley-shaped warren with seawater-colored partitions,” however virtually a yr into its passage, Smithereens, a cheffed-up homage to the foodways of New England (proper right down to the bottles of Moxie, older than Coca-Cola and the official mushy drink of Maine), is price slightly claustrophobia.
After the restaurant opened final yr, I discovered it to be inconsistent. On his seafood-heavy menu, Nick Tamburo, a former chef at Momofuku Ko (the place he met Nikita Malhotra, his accomplice within the enterprise and its wine director), was cooking with verve and creativity, however he appeared to have a chef’s, quite than a diner’s, abiding curiosity within the bizarre. For each scrumptious hit — a particular of amberjack stomach, say, crisped over binchotan and served with sea-lettuce French dressing — there was one which felt like an formidable miss. A form of bean stew thickened with uni. A lobster roll — flying a miniature Massachusetts state flag, no much less — dialed up with lobster butter and lobster aïoli, served for some cause on an overcharred bun? I ended up recommending that diners deal with Smithereens like an Japanese Seaboard sushi joint, going for the uncooked dishes and tactfully ignoring the fizzled fireworks.
Some eating places work proper out of the gate — just like the equally alcoveish Claud, which Tamburo helped to open — and a few take some time to seek out their sea legs. Smithereens, I’m joyful to report, now has. The timing might hardly be higher. As summer season drags lazily towards its squelching conclusion, and I rely the time unstuck to my shirt in minutes, not hours, we’re solidly within the fish window. Spare me your strip steaks until fall. When Smithereens opened in November with web page after web page of Kabinett Riesling and a lone crimson listed (although a number of extra had been hidden within the cellar for anybody who requested properly), it appeared kinky. In August, an oasis of chilly, electrical white wine appears nothing however beneficent.
By complete coincidence, I went to Smithereens not too long ago with two sons of Boston. We had been devouring a loaf of home made anadama bread, rye-nutty and faintly candy with molasses, when a black handkerchief of buckwheat crêpe landed on the desk, showered inexperienced as Fenway with chives, the good things beneath: a maple-enriched pâté of smoked bluefish, beloved by Bay Staters and never many others. The Bostonians seemed virtually misty as one recalled pulling bluefish out of Buzzards Bay. “These are the very best variations of Northeastern classics,” Sam stated — even when they’re not traditional themselves. A dish of “rice with quahogs” arrived, like a prodigal chowder. “If I put rice in my clam chowder, my father would ask the place he’d gone unsuitable,” Patrick added, wincing. He additionally completed the bowl.
That’s the restaurant in a clamshell. The place it really works, Smithereens sings. Skinny slices of delicate sea bream are pretty with candy, musky tiles of Zerbinati melon, the Alfa Romeo of cantaloupes. A complete fried whiting — likelier to be discovered baiting a hook than on a fine-dining plate — is served with the dignity often accorded to branzino, head and all. Striped bass garlanded with foam is a reminder that culinary-school approach can function in a tiny downtown kitchen, although I discovered a less complicated, Provençal-style swordfish with tarragon and summer season squash extra satisfying. My favourite fish of all was a splayed-open mackerel, one other often-unloved sea creature, tattooed from the grill and sweetly perfumed with tamarind, allspice, and chile.
Swordfish with tarragon; candied seaweed with licorice and citron Hugo Yu.
Swordfish with tarragon; candied seaweed with licorice and citron Hugo Yu.
Even what doesn’t work will get credit score for cleverness. There’s seaweed up and down the menu, snuck into Vermont butter and infused into the sea-lettuce French dressing. Did I would like it in dessert? Candied seaweed with licorice-flavored pastry cream is a multistory little tower of candy, saline funk, a fisherman’s napoleon, too odd for me. Likewise a celeriac-ice-cream float with home made Cel-Ray. Each have been mainstays because the restaurant opened. Keep on with the baked items as a substitute. Fall’s apple-cider doughnut has changed into summer season’s blueberry doughnut, and it stays dusted with sufficient citric acid to make a bitter gummy blush.
There’s an impressively broad drink choice overseen by Malhotra, an award-winning sommelier with a wonk’s style for particulars. (Narrating its full origin story, she supplied us, from the cellar, a relative rarity, a wine as trade program between two masters: fruit from Klaus-Peter Keller within the Rheinhessen vinified by Julian Haart within the Mosel. The Bostonians had been bug-eyed on the degree of element.) Malhotra and her workforce deal with their wine checklist like a temper board, spotlighting no matter is capturing their consideration for the time being to the exclusion of most, if not all, different choices: Riesling to start out, then a detour into Grenache, now Champagne. A number of of the bottles on their checklist include handwritten notes of endorsement from the workforce, like workers picks at an indie bookstore. There’s additionally a wider range of choices by the glass than there have been on my earlier visits, and some thematically acceptable cocktails (a seaweed martini, in fact), and various nonalcoholic options.
Smithereens is just not a restaurant for everybody. It is likely to be an excellent higher factor: a restaurant very a lot for some. If one evening’s particular of “fish head terrine” places anybody off, contemplate that intentional, a method to separate out those that wouldn’t from those that would. It’s a small boat.
Sales space If You Can
The complete menu is served on the bar, however attempt to get a desk — the low backs of the bar seats (and among the desk seats) aren’t essentially the most comfy.
Learn Up
To remain within the loop — say, with Malhotra’s journey by way of Champagne — subscribe to the restaurant’s more-or-less-monthly Substack.
Neighborhood Historical past
Smithereens was named for the 1982 film by Susan Seidelman (Desperately Searching for Susan) concerning the dangerous outdated days of East Village punk. Price a watch!
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Should you desire to learn in print, you can too discover this text within the August 11, 2025, subject of
New York Journal.
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Should you desire to learn in print, you can too discover this text within the August 11, 2025, subject of
New York Journal.
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