Just checking in on Kingsley, the new, 65-seat restaurant in the works at 190 Avenue B between East 11th Street and East 12th Street.
Kingsley is scheduled to open this fall. The restaurant has a website here and Facebook page.
Here's the restaurant's description via Facebook:
Our focus is seasonal, local, market-driven, contemporary French-American cuisine. The menu, cocktail program, and wine list are dynamic and unique, to complement the atmosphere. All dishes have interesting juxtaposition of flavors and textures, while still being balanced and reminiscent of classic dishes and tastes. The goal is delicious, inspired, and creative food and drink.
Chef-owner Roxanne Spruance's resumé includes working in the kitchen with Wylie Dufresne at the late WD~50 on Clinton Street. (You can read the rest of her bio here.)
The previous restaurant at No. 190, the 7-year-old Back Forty, closed for good after service last Dec. 21.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Modern American in the works for former Back Forty space on Avenue B
I am finally at a place in my life after years of hard work and nurturing my own business that I can actually afford to eat in these trendy new places with food promising to awe us with technique, flavor, blah blah blah.... I have tried a several such as the now gentrified out of existence WD 50 and all I can say is (I) don't believe the hype.
ReplyDeletePlaces like this one will continue to open since reasonably priced restaurants will never open again in the East Village and few will remain as leases expire. I have nothing against this new place and the owners pursuing their dreams however I wish they were in Tribeca along with their clients.
The silver lining is at least this space is not another sports bar or brunch hell hole like the places on lower Avenue B.
I did notice the other day that Back Forty has moved, not closed.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it's been here a while; I just noticed it.
I wish we had more affordable eating options in the neighborhood like we once did. But these fancy places are the only ones with a shot of opening because of the insane rents.
ReplyDeletethe "gallery" on the website tells it all - pictures of food as still life.
ReplyDeletewords that don't convey a good food or good meal.
pretentious.
keep it.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....huh? Wha? Oh, another "seasonal, local, market-driven, contemporary" restaurant with "dynamic and unique" offerings with "interesting juxtaposition(s) of flavors and textures, while still being balanced and reminiscent of classic dishes and tastes"? Yeah, no, I'll pass.
ReplyDeleteI lived at 188 Ave B in 1987/88. 190 was a burnt out shell that was being used a crack den. A couple of times they even lit it on fire in the middle of the night, but mostly it was full of types trying to get a fix, turn tricks under my window and use our building as a place to break in. One of my roommates was hit in the head with a brick when our "neighbors" tried to rob him (and threw in some homophobic action just for good measure)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy the rubble on 12th at least became a playground and I'm happy to see the crack den gone, but I would never have imagined the neighborhood becoming so "refined".
There has to be a middle ground for the rest of us. Decent, affordable places to eat, see music, converge, create. Not just shell out $$$ for so so food.
Will they serve boozy acai bowls?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to dragging your food down the L train stairs.
ReplyDeleteI'm a francophile and all but anyone else notices all these French or French-whatever fusion restaurants and "restaurants" opening-up in the EV/LES, e.g. this, David's Cafe, Excuse My French, Le Village, Bara, Les Enfants de Bohème, not to mention the veteran old-fashioned bistros -- Jules, Lucien, 26 Seats -- and the modern upstarts -- Dirty French, La Gamelle, Lafayettes, Cherche Midi, Le French Diner, Pardon My French --, and the faux-French Raclette. Pas ça il y a quelque chose qui cloche avec cela. Je donne ma langue au chat.
ReplyDeleteIf I feel motivated later I'll rewrite that description.
ReplyDeleteAt 11:02 AM, Dan C. said:
ReplyDeleteI'm happy the rubble on 12th at least became a playground and I'm happy to see the crack den gone, but I would never have imagined the neighborhood becoming so "refined".
I know, right?
Are other people finding it hard to go out to eat in the neighborhood now? I realized I rarely go to restaurants anymore. I visit some of the local restaurants that serve pizza like 11B and Gruppo and some of the small taco and arepa shops, but I can afford to eat out in the new restaurants that have opened in recent years. They are too expensive for me. I don't know who eats in them. I don't see the newbies who live in the neighborhood crowding the tables because they aren't foodies--they want to spend their money boozing it up.
ReplyDeleteThe neighborhood is just about nearly turned from a place that serves the people which live here to a place that serves only those visiting from other parts of the city and well to do tourists. If you have a favorite spot for a simple affordable meal (mine is Y-Cafe) patronize it or kiss it goodbye come lease renew time. The most un-New York thing I can imagine is not that cozy unpretentious place to eat when you don't have the energy to cook or just not good at it. Sports bars and foodie meccas is not my idea of a good time.
ReplyDeleteThe East Village feels like a mall at the airport. It's so bad.
ReplyDeleteThat's an insult to airport malls; they have more character than the new EV. Plus, duty free! yo.
ReplyDeleteThe newbies don't even go out to eat at all these trendeateries; they order take-out or Seamless. They only go out when it's time to booze for that possible hook-up.
ReplyDelete@Pizza Rat - I hope you enjoy it, sweetie!
ReplyDeleteOne restaurant replacing another -- the horror, the horror. Old people complaining the EV is no longer full of burnt-out buildings. Note: there were 1/10 the restaurants then as today, if you find lack of choice exciting, wallow in your nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteAnon October 21, 2015 at 9:33 PM - more like a traffic island on the interstate
ReplyDeleteComparing the East Village to a mall at the airport is insanely extreme. You guys don't appreciate how wonderful this neighborhood is, and how much it has to offer. I'm not sure you realize what life in the most of rest of this country is like. No culture, driving to Starbucks or Target for a big "outing," eating at chain restaurants. I understand it's not really what this blog is about, but could someone please occasionally appreciate what we have?!
ReplyDelete