The last time we checked in, Will Goldfarb, the Room 4 Dessert chef, had just begun convincing restaurants around town to outsource their dessert program to him. Now the ultracaffeinated cake whiz has colonized Battery Park, beating out some major rivals to develop and operate two lunch kiosks there. The stands won’t be open until late summer, but Goldfarb has typically high-concept plans for both. Former Thor chef Kevin Pomplun will run the kitchen, producing high-end sandwiches (a sous-vide chicken club; an oil-packed Sardinian tuna with tarragon mayo on ciabatta) and Goldfarbian desserts (pistachio panna cotta, hot chocolate mousse).
Pure Fix, as the place will be called, will be a model of what Goldfarb describes as “entrepreneurial philanthropy.” Which means? Just that the kiosks will “generate revenue to raise awareness and contribute to the overall betterment of the human race.” And what more can you ask of a kiosk? Along the way, they will also benefit the Battery Conservancy, the group in charge of developing the park. And revenues from most products will be earmarked for charity — part of coffee profits going to educating children of coffee-plantation workers, bottled water sales to developing clean-water projects, and so on.
Goldfarb, meanwhile, won’t be involved with the day-to-day operations. “I want to focus on Room 4 Dessert, not being a megastar chef,” he tells us. “People visit us from all over the world, and soon we are going to be open 24/7. I want us to be the best bar in the world. But these kiosks are the beginning of a larger plan.” That much we could have guessed.
Earlier: Feisty, Ambitious Will Goldfarb: “Fire Your Pastry Chef!”
