Apologies in advance for the quality of some of these photos.

Redhead Gibson cocktail:  Plymouth gin, pickled cippolini onions, fresh pepper

Smoked trout, pickled onions, sour cream, fried potato sticks

Corned beef, stuffed cabbage, mustard seed au jus

Guinness Stout cake, Guinness foam, citrus tuille, blood orange reduction

Chef Meg Grace, formerly of Brennan’s (New Orleans), 15 Ria (Washington, D.C.) and The Modern at MoMA, is part of the team behind Redhead. The other two members are co-owners Rob Larcom (Myriad Restaurant Group) and Gregg Nelson (Dylan Prime, Devin Tavern). Although dinner is served only on Thursday evening, there are plans in the works to begin full service in about three weeks, with weekend brunch shortly thereafter. The bar features cocktails which change on an almost daily basis and if last night’s Gibson was any indication of quality, there are at least three or four good reasons why this will soon become one of my favorite “go-to” places. Mr. Larcom is the genius behind the beverage menu.

Out of 10? A solid 7 based on this one visit. It’s difficult to make corned beef and cabbage sexy, but Meg managed to do it. Guinness stout cake was redolent of spice and ale; the addition of blood orange provided a nicely sweet yet tart counterpoint.

You’re probably thinking this dinner cost an arm and a leg. You’d be wrong. Three courses for $25 and not just any old food, but seasonally driven, American cuisine by people who care. Go while you can, because it won’t remain unknown for very long.

Redhead is located at 349 East 13th Street (1st Avenue) in the East Village.

14 Mar This entry was published on March 14, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under food, general, New York City. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.