I couldn’t make the grand opening party of Industry Kitchen — the waterfront restaurant alongside both the East River and the historic South Street Seaport — so I was invited to try it another time.
Industry Kitchen’s setting is idyllic in good weather as the night we tried it. We sat outside on the patio under the FDR and alongside the promenade by the river with panorama of the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridges, the Brooklyn skyline and the sailboats in the water. If you opt to sit inside, you can watch the staff in the open kitchen pulling out freshly made pizzas, grilled meats and more from the wood-burning ovens.
We started with the roasted shoshito peppers ($9) nicely salted and blistered although they could have used a bit more time in the oven. The same with the broccolini pizza ($15) as it was a tad under cooked. It had lots of veggies and was finished with dollops of fresh ricotta. The arugula salad ($12) also contained broccolini, plus a few slices of coppa piccante in a flavorless purportedly smoked paprika dressing.
By the time this finally posts (which is often weeks after my tasting), someone will have taught the staff how to regulate the heat in the ovens and not to rush when roasting chicken. The half a roast chicken ($19) comes with lemon, grilled radicchio and mayo-based barbecue sauce. I should have said half-roasted as we discovered the breast was raw when we cut it in half. The server got us another chicken. We cut into the leg of that one and blood ran out. We skipped the chicken.
The star of the night is the oven-roasted layered vegetable gratin ($18) with eggplant, zucchini, tomato, parmesan and basil pistou. In fact, I’d recommend heading to Industry Kitchen, grabbing an outside table to enjoy the view and just ordering that dish and a glass of wine!
– bonnie
Industry Kitchen
South Street Seaport
70 South Street (at Maiden Lane)
New York, NY 10038
212-487-9600
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