It’s being billed as a “reverse speakeasy,” but you could also call it a reverse mullet: party in the front, business in the back. Wednesday, the owners of The Garret will open an intimate restaurant behind their East Village cocktail bar. Unlike the neighborhood’s short-lived pizza speakeasy, you won’t need a password to get into dinnertable (one word, no caps)– just a healthy appetite.
The Garret, to refresh your memory, is the cocktail bar that in 2014 opened above a Five Guys in the West Village and then expanded to the East Village last fall. The “reverse speakeasy” behind The Garret East will consist of just 20 seats at marble tabletops. The menu is created by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli, a husband and wife who previously teamed up at Midtown steakhouse Quality Italian. There’s Germanic bar-snack type food like a garlic pretzel and potato dumplings (below), as well as a capocollo burger whose name (The Sixth Guy’s Burger) is a cheeky nod to Five Guys.
(Photos courtesy of dinnertable)
But there are also lighter plates like short rib carpaccio and crysanthemum salad. All dishes can be augmented with an ounce of Russian caviar for half a hundo. And in a Carbone/Torrisi-esque move, there’s a double portion of lasagna bolognese for forty smackers.
You can pair this with drinks like a bottled negroni or, in reverse speakeasy style, step back into the bar for original cocktails like the Missus Wheeler, a bourbon and banana-liqueur concoction presumably named after someone close to bar manager Grant Wheeler’s heart.
Dinnertable, 206 Avenue A, bet. 12th and 13th Sts., East Village; no reservations, maximum party size 4 people; open Tuesday through Sunday, 5:30pm to 11:30pm.