A 'Seasonal Wood-Fired Kitchen' Opens in Williamsburg, With Roofdeck Coming Soon

(Photo: Daniel Maurer)

With Vice currently gutting the former IndieScreen for its new offices, Death By Audio closing, and the Domino complex about to go up, the corner of South 2nd Street and Kent Avenue is about to see some change. Actually, it already has, with the opening of Cow & Clover, a New American restaurant that aims to open a sprawling roofdeck by next spring.

The name — a reference to the cow’s favorite food — is a reference to the owners’ farm-to-table credo that “you are what you eat, but you also are what what you eat eats.” Jason Lloyd, formerly head of catering at Spoonbread Catering and a sous chef at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, says he wants to “help return food to the norm,” meaning seasonal dishes, grassfed meats, and wild-caught fish.

The menu describes Cow & Clover as a “seasonal wood-fired kitchen,” since most of the food comes out of two massive wood-burning ovens. They were left behind by the previous tenant, Monk, and are expertly manned by chef Morgan Schofield, an alum of Il Buco and Blue Hill.

There’s a nightly special and groups can pre-order order “whole roasts” like a 30-pound suckling pig, leg of lamb, pork shoulder, or an entire fish.

The cocktails incorporate infused liquors (think vodka infused with jalapeno roasted in the stone ovens) and homemade juices like a strawberry jalapeno lemonade. And Mickey Lee, a co-owner who met Lloyd at the Institute of Culinary Education, makes a popcorn gelato that tastes exactly like a frozen version of, well, what would’ve been served in paper bags over at Indiescreen (RIP).