The last time I was in New York, I got the opportunity to check out a restaurant that had been on my radar for months: 21 Greenpoint.
It wasn’t the celebrity connection that got my attention, though the restaurant did get a lot of press when it first opened because Bill Murray’s son Homer is the owner. I actually got wind of it because I heard that Chef Sean Telo was doing cool things with food waste, and since my day job involves writing a lot about sustainability, I thought it would be right in my wheelhouse.
I was right.
I got the chance to chat with Sean about his philosophy and techniques for using up food waste and scraps in his kitchen, and I found it so intriguing, I decided I needed to see (or rather, taste) his handiwork for myself.
My sisters and I decided try the tasting menu that 21 Greenpoint serves on Sunday nights. For just $21, customers get a number of different plates to share (we got seven), all of which are made with scraps and leftovers from the week before.
Our evening started with a simple salad made with bitter greens – I think it was radish greens, but I’m not entirely sure – with cucumber and onion. We also had a bowl of delicious broth with vegetables and beans.
Next, we were served a serious of mains to share: the battered fish with tartar sauce above was just one of them.
Sweet curried cauliflower.
House-made tortelloni with tomato and basil.
Flatbread with squash, honey, rosemary, cheese, and lamb bacon. (Sean earned his stripes in a pizza restaurant, so it’s no surprise that this was awesome.)
And eggplant “fries.”
The dishes, of course, change every week, and even with every table: a table near us got a different fish dish, for example. Sean had told me during our interview that he tries to serve different dishes to different tables to keep a convivial atmosphere going, allowing neighboring diners to ask one another what they’re eating and talk about the food.
When we’d finished the last of our mains, our waiter asked us if we’d had enough to eat before bringing out two desserts: homemade doughnut holes with grapefruit curd and a really spectacular house-made sorbet.
Just shows what you can do with leftovers.