openings

Edie Jo’s in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens Channels Betty Crocker and the Corner Bodega

An American spirit pervades the menu at Edie Jo’s. Photo: Scott Heins

Doug Friedman is a film-industry fugitive from Los Angeles who learned the ropes of the restaurant business working at his brother Ken Friedman’s restaurant group, doing everything from food running to construction, and then parted ways in 2014 before accusations of sexual harassment fractured the empire. For his first solo project, he has joined with fellow industry veteran Ben Toro to open an emphatically neighborhood joint in Toro’s own Prospect–Lefferts Gardens backyard. Edie Jo’s, a combination of the partners’ daughters’ names, occupies a newly developed corner that fronts the Parkline apartment tower and adjoins an independent bookstore and a preschool. When all those renters, readers, and toddlers get hungry, they can head next door for chef Jonathan Short’s nostalgia-laced, locally sourced takes on homey American food: grass-fed cheeseburgers, a Denver “roast” with potato gratin and green beans, pork-shoulder steak with buttermilk kimchee (a lacto-fermented approach to coleslaw). Short cites influences from Betty Crocker and TV dinners to the corner bodega, and once the evening hours extend to all-day service, he’ll add daytime items like a breakfast sandwich, a cheesesteak, and a vegan muffuletta. (The full dinner menu launches July 22.) In the mornings, the counter will function as a grab-and-go coffee bar, and the drinks list has already attracted curious locals with an affordable selection of European wines, largely New York beers, and well-made versions of classic cocktails like the mai tai and the old fashioned. Here’s a look at the space and some of the food.

Lots of wood and windows. Photo: Scott Heins
Clockwise from top left: The apple-celery salad with roasted peanuts riffs on ants on a log; the ceviche's made with Montauk dayboat scallops and Jersey peaches; and the heirloom-tomato salad with bacon, aïoli, and crispy bread is meant to evoke a BLT. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
Clockwise from top left: The apple-celery salad with roasted peanuts riffs on ants on a log; the ceviche's made with Montauk dayboat scallops and Jers... Clockwise from top left: The apple-celery salad with roasted peanuts riffs on ants on a log; the ceviche's made with Montauk dayboat scallops and Jersey peaches; and the heirloom-tomato salad with bacon, aïoli, and crispy bread is meant to evoke a BLT. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
Wild striped bass over New England-style corn-potato chowder (left) and pork-shoulder steak with buttermilk kimchee. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
Wild striped bass over New England-style corn-potato chowder (left) and pork-shoulder steak with buttermilk kimchee. Photo: Scott Heins for New York M... Wild striped bass over New England-style corn-potato chowder (left) and pork-shoulder steak with buttermilk kimchee. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
Grass-fed-beef burger with New York cheddar on a Bien Cuit bun. Photo: Scott Heins
Using a more obscure cut like the under blade (also known as Denver steak) allows the chef to price grass-fed beef affordably. On the side: potato gratin and sautéed string beans. Photo: Scott Heins
The East Side cocktail (left) and the Whiskey Smash. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
The East Side cocktail (left) and the Whiskey Smash. Photo: Scott Heins for New York Magazine.
Lemon tart with wild blueberries and crème fraîche. Photo: Scott Heins
The corner location is below a preschool and next door to an independent bookstore. Photo: Scott Heins

630 Flatbush Ave., at Fenimore St., Prospect–Lefferts Gardens; 914-229-3300

*A version of this article appears in the July 22, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

Edie Jo’s Opens in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens