386 MAIN STREET
ARMONK, NY 10504
(914) 273-8686
PARTNERS: CHEF ERIC GABRYNOWICZ AND STEPHEN PAUL MANCINI
Stephen Paul Mancini and Chef Eric Gabrynowicz are the restaurant Dream Team, it’s that simple.
It begins with Chef Eric Gabrynowicz—ice-blue eyes, energy radiating off him like lines off a Keith Haring figure. His résumé reads like a straight flush. After graduating with honors from The Culinary Institute of America, Gabrynowicz shone so brightly that he turned an externship at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe into a rare and coveted full-time post. From there Meyer groomed Gabrynowicz with turns in Tabla and Blue Smoke (both Meyer landmarks), before returning him to Union Square as its sous-chef under Chef Michael Romano.
Now, other chefs of Gabrynowicz’s caliber would have cashed in at that point—and perhaps hired a GM in a solo venture that snagged all the cash and kudos for himself. But Danny Meyer, the legendary front-of-house guru, had taught Gabrynowicz better than that. In 2010 Gabrynowicz teamed up with another Danny Meyer protégé, Stephen Paul Mancini, to form an unbeatable front-and-back-of-house team.
Mancini—irrepressibly enthusiastic, if not a wild-eyed zealot—started his restaurant career in a post-college stint as a busboy at Gramercy Tavern. By twenty-seven this Scarsdale-raised enfant terrible was beverage director of Union Square Cafe, the youngest ever in a restaurant that rated #1 in the Zagat Survey. Though busy, he still had time to push the boundaries by home curing prosciutto and making wine in his Harlem apartment. In 2008 the New York Sun called Mancini “The Mad Scientist of 16th Street” for his nuclear yellow experiments in the Italian liqueur limoncello (conducted in the basement of USC). When Danny Meyer opened Maialino in the Gramercy Park Hotel, he appointed Mancini its opening beverage director. Despite his youth, Mancini is the total front-of-house package with first-class wine, cocktail, and service chops.
Together, Gabrynowicz and Mancini created Restaurant North, a sunny and sophisticated restaurant that simultaneously expresses the duo’s aristocratic restaurant background and their youthful joy. Restaurant North supports local farms, winemakers, distillers, and brewers, but never at the price of fun. North’s excellence has not gone unnoticed—not only is North a critical darling, but in 2012 Chef Gabrynowicz snagged Food & Wine magazine’s People’s Best New Chef (Northeast).
(SERVES 4)
For the short ribs:
4–6 bone-in beef short ribs, preferably from Josef Meiller’s Farm and Slaughterhouse (Pine Plains, New York)
Salt and pepper
1 carrot
1 onion
2 stalks celery
1 bottle good quality red wine
2 fresh bay leaves
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
Chicken stock to cover
For the sweet potato puree:
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup cream
Salt and pepper
For the sweet potato chips:
Blended oil for frying (Gabrynowicz uses a 90/10 blend of canola/olive oil)
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced thin
Salt
For the roasted Brussels sprouts:
1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half
2–3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
To prepare the ribs: Preheat oven to 300°F. On the bone side of each short rib, trim the excess fat and score the ribs diagonally across the bone. Season the ribs all over with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, sear the ribs meat side down until crusted. Remove the ribs and set aside; in remaining fat, sauté carrot, onion, and celery. When the vegetables are soft and slightly caramelized, deglaze the pan with the red wine. At this point add the bay leaves and peppercorns and return the meat, bone side up, to the Dutch oven. Add chicken stock until the ribs are covered, place lid on the Dutch oven, and place in the preheated oven. Braise the ribs for 4–5 hours, or until the meat is fork tender.
When ribs are fork tender, remove the Dutch oven and set it aside. Allow the ribs to cool in the Dutch oven for 1 hour. Gently lift the meat from the pan (reserving the liquid) and place it on a cookie sheet. Remove the bones from the short ribs. Place another cookie sheet on top of the meat and weight it down to press. Refrigerate. Strain the reserved braising liquid through a chinois or fine mesh strainer and return the strained liquid to the pan. Cook over medium heat until the liquid is reduced to a syrup consistency. Set aside.
After the ribs are completely cooled (8–10 hours), trim the excess fat and sinew from the meat. Discard. When ready to plate, reheat the cleaned meat in a Dutch oven with the reduced liquid. Baste frequently.
To make the sweet potato puree: In a mediumsize pot, cover the potatoes with cold water and season the water with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes are fork tender. Drain. In a separate saucepan melt the butter and then add the cream. Add the milk/butter mixture to the potatoes and incorporate using a hand blender. For extra fluffiness, finish in a drink blender with an additional tablespoon of both cream and butter. Season with salt and pepper.
To fry the chips: Fill a wide pot halfway with the 90/10 blended oil. Heat to 320°F. Add the chips one by one and fry, about ten at a time, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider onto paper towels. Immediately season with salt.
To roast the Brussels sprouts: Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss Brussels sprouts, olive oil, and salt and pepper in a bowl until coated. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet. Roast in the oven for approximately 20–23 minutes, or until tender.
To assemble the dish: Place a dollop of the sweet potato puree down as a base, then add a few roasted Brussels sprouts and top with the glazed short ribs. Finish with the fried chips.
(SERVES 4–6 AS A FIRST COURSE)
For the pickled garlic scapes:
1 dried chile
1 cup cider vinegar
1 star anise pod
4 teaspoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
15 garlic scapes
For the garlic scape compound butter:
1 pound unsalted butter, softened
6 pickled garlic scapes, sliced thin on a bias
3 Meyer lemons, zested and juiced
½ cup finely (but gently) chopped herbs (Gabrynowicz suggests chive, chervil, and tarragon)
For the oysters:
Kosher salt
24 oysters
To pickle the scapes: In a small saucepan combine the chile, vinegar, anise, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil and pour over the garlic scapes. Press down with a weight (Gabrynowicz uses plates) so that the scapes stay submerged in the brine.
To make the compound butter: In a mediumsize bowl, blend the butter, scapes, lemons, and herbs gently. Try not to bruise the herbs. Reserve at room temperature.
To roast the oysters: Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread a ½-inch layer of kosher salt on a baking sheet and set aside. (The salt acts as a stabilizing bed for the roasting oysters so that their precious liquids won’t spill.) Clean the oysters by scrubbing them under cold water with a brush. When clean, pat the oysters dry on a towel and place the unopened oysters flat side up on a high-heat grill (preferably charcoal) for approximately 2 minutes, or until they open. Carefully remove the oysters from the grill with tongs and place them flat on the bed of kosher salt. Remove their top shells.
To assemble the dish: Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the compound butter over each cooked oyster. Roast in the oven for about 2 additional minutes. Serve and slurp.
BLACK DIRT
Hudson Valley Terroir
About 12,000 years ago, when glaciers receded from the Hudson Valley, what they left in their wake was a uniquely composed soil so dense in nitrogen, sulfur, and other nutrients that, in global satellite images, discrete regions of Orange County show up as a jet-black streak. Stephen Paul Mancini of Restaurant North explains the value of the Hudson Valley black dirt: “In Burgundy, they call it ‘terroir.’ No one cares how old your vines are, what they really care about is the dirt. And that dirt can change, as far as its composition, in the space of ten feet. So, the appellation could be Grand Cru or Premiere Cru within a ten-foot walk up a hill. Literally. And so taking from that old model—especially in the Hudson Valley, especially on Long Island—we’re not really looking at geography as much as we are digging in and checking the soil. In the Hudson Valley, that’s especially true in the Black Dirt Region. Guy Jones at Blooming Hill Farms has about one hundred acres of black dirt where he’s producing amazing onions, garlic, and potatoes.” He adds, “People like Guy Jones are very prideful about their black dirt.”
Black Dirt Spirits, used in Mancini’s North of Manhattan cocktail (below), are made by the distilling off-shoot of Warwick Valley Winery, located in Pine Island, squarely in the Black Dirt Region. Says Mancini, “All of the products used to make Black Dirt Spirits—whether apple jack or bourbon—are grown in the Hudson Valley on black dirt. So the Black Dirt Bourbon uses 100 percent black dirt corn, malted barley, and rye; and the apples in Black Dirt Apple Jack are all grown on black dirt, too.”
(SERVES 1)
2 ounces Black Dirt Bourbon or Black Dirt Apple Jack
1½ ounces New York State apple cider
½ ounces of ginger cordial or Q Ginger Ale
1 slice of Jonagold apple, for garnish
Stir the first three ingredients over ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a slice of Jonagold apple.