There are no Cronuts at Dominique Ansel’s new West Village restaurant, but 70 percent of the menu items are made to order. This means that his cooks will cut whole vanilla beans and sprinkle them over ice cream, slice ham à la minute and wrap it around a cheese croissant, and emulsify lemon curd in a milkshake-maker before adding it to a tart. Ansel wants to subvert the expectations of a typical bakery and make this concept more like a restaurant’s kitchen.
He’s serving both savory and sweet dishes, which also include matcha beignets, sage-smoked brownies, and something called the “Egg-clipse” — squid-ink brioche with garlic mashed potatoes, two confit egg yolks, and mushroom béchamel. And come May, Ansel will launch an after-hours tasting menu on the second floor of his production kitchen, called U.P. (which stands for “unlimited possibilities”). In the meantime, take a look at what’s available today:
Menu [PDF]
Dominique Ansel Kitchen, 137 Seventh Avenue South, 212-242-5111
