Empire Building

Look for Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen in February

Photo: Getty Images

Back in November 2008, Jean-Georges Vongerichten told New York that he would open a restaurant in the former Lucy space in ABC Carpet & Home. As of late February, look out for ABC Kitchen, a market-driven restaurant where everything from the bathroom soaps to the cleaning products will be organic. Even the wine and spirits will be organic or artisanal. “Of course, if you want Belvedere, we will have it,” says Ryan Armstrong, the restaurant’s general manager. The menu is not pegged to any particular cuisine. “The food will all be from this area, but we don’t want to be limited in style by locale,” says Armstrong. “And it will be less austere than a typical Jean-Georges restaurant.”

The décor, conceived by local Brooklyn furniture designer Eric Slayton, will be a modern take on farm-to-table with rustic furnishings and sustainable building materials like steel and concrete. “There was a tremendous amount of research that went into every detail because of our focus on a sustainable philosophy,” Slayton explains.

Look for Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen in February