Tag Archives: chef bill

Chef Bill takes over the Strong Place Kitchen: Cobble Hill, BK

23 Dec

Chef Bill Seleno is nothing if not an alchemist.  The moment he touches an everyday ingredient, it becomes gold.  His last opening was creating the menu for King’s Clam Bar, and now he has taken on a new huge, multi-pronged project that is sure to further enhance Brooklyn as a food lovers destination (more on that will be posting in the New Year).  He has started by working with the team at Strong Place, a Cobble Hill staple.

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Strong Place is known in the neighborhood for their craft beer, live music, and great food.

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And Chef Bill has come in to up the ante even further, adding some Chef Bill touches to the menu. Working with the bar manager, a Cicerone (a beer sommelier), they created a menu that perfectly pairs with the 24 craft beers on tap.

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The restaurant looks solidly like Brooklyn, with a big metal barn door that slides open for the bathroom.DSCF3609

They have many great craft beers on tap.

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With beers from all across the country and lots of Allagash (one of my favorite beers from Maine) and Firestone (a favorite brought to my attention by good friends in Atlanta).

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Chef Bill had arranged to have us do a tasting of the menu with beer pairings from the knowledgeable and excited Cicerone (we hadn’t told Bill I was preggers yet… we told him when we arrived)

Between the beer and the extensive, check-off oyster list, I was very bummed to be limited by my pregnancy.

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But the moment these voluptuous beauties came out, I knew I was going to cheat.  Much to my protective husband’s chagrin.  I had one. ONE!  I shouldn’t have done it. But I just couldn’t resist.

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3 months of no alcohol, no soft cheeses, and no raw seafood was making me into a cranky pregnant lady. I also had a sip of each of the beer pairings throughout the meal. Just a sip.  Funny enough, my doctor was more upset about the oyster than the beer.  So… no more oysters.  But the moment that baby is out, somebody send over a few dozen, okay?

(PS- It was so good… no regrets)

These were paired with a Firestone Walker Pilsner and they went very well together.

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Next out was an awesome bar snack: Fried chick peas.  These were warm and had a little crisp with great flavor. I ate nearly the whole bowl and had to slow myself down to have room for the rest of the meal, and I’m not even a big chick pea fan.  I would go here just for these and a beer in the middle of the day (after June, that is!)  Delish.

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With this they also brought out tequila lime chicken wings (that I couldn’t eat due to a peppers allergy) but Mike very much enjoyed.

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These were paired with Two Roads Octoberfest (from Connecticut) and that went very nicely with the chick peas (and Mike enjoyed with the wings).

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Our next dish was a kale salad with cauliflower, tomato, carrots, brussels sprouts, chick peas, apples, walnuts, and burnt lemon caramelized vinaigrette. This was a FANTASTIC salad. I usually go for salads for all the goodies and view the lettuce/green as simply a conduit to get the other delicious things into my mouth.  This was a perfect salad with lots of goodies and great combinations.

The beer pairing with this was Two Roads Abby Blonde Style, and you wouldn’t normally think of beer with salad, but this totally worked.

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Our next dish was duck confit with horse radish and celery root with bacon.  I LOVE duck confit and this did not disappoint.  Crispy, tasty skin with flavor rich tender meat in the middle.  I don’t typically like horseradish, but the tiny bit I added to my bite did compliment it nicely. And the celery root puree with bacon in it was a great compliment of rich flavors.

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This was paired with Allagash Victor, which is a Belgian style golden strong ale. They extract sugar from barley (basically making oatmeal) and use a Cabernet Franc wine to ferment it.  It went perfectly to cut through the fattyness of the confit while toning down the horse radish a bit.

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Next up was the “Boo-ya-base” which was a twist on a classic bouillabaisse dish.  I couldn’t have this (back to the allergy) but Mike really enjoyed it (sorry for the flash picture… only way to see those delicious mollusks). This dish had some of the craft beers actually IN the recipe to help bring together the flavors and the beer pairings.  The sauce was made with Piperdown Scotch Ale and the potatoes are boiled in Stout.

It was paired with the Allagash Confluence Belgian Strong Ale which goes through 2 fermentations.

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Since I couldn’t have the boo-ya-base, I got to taste a freshly slow cooked pork butt which had all the delicious qualities of slow cooked pig.

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For dessert, we tried the caramel pudding with white chocolate whipped cream and a soft chocolate biscotti. Even this was paired with beer (Left Hand Milk Stout) and they were a great match.

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Our last dessert was an apple cobbler (with the apples slow cooked in, what else? beer).

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The whipped cream was made with bourbon bacon (and BOY was it bourbony). The bourbon is macerated with the bacon  and it certainly had strong flavors of both.  Very original.

This was also paired with beer: Almanac Golden Gate Gose (from Northern California).  My sips throughout the night proved to me that the Cicerone knows what he’s doing, even with the desserts.

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Our meal was fantastic from start to finish.  Every day, I miss being able to go around the corner to the old Albert Hall Tavern (where we first met Chef Bill) so I can have the food that Bill does oh so well… the food that makes you happy… reminds you of the food you grew up but with a modern, fun twist.  I wish I lived closer to Strong Place so I could be a regular, but if you happen to be one of the lucky ones in the area, you cannot miss with this menu at Strong Place and it’s worth the trip if you’re not local.  The beer pairings, attention to detail, and great, relaxed atmosphere just add to the draw.

They will be doing a pretty awesome sounding New Year’s Eve menu this year if you’re looking for a delicious way to spend the evening.

They also have live music and an outdoor patio (for when the weather is a bit nicer).

Highly recommended.

More on the journey of Chef Bill coming soon.

King’s CLAM BAR with Chef Bill Seleno: GRAND OPENING

18 Sep

For this story, we need to travel back to 12/12/12.  I had been chronicling Chef Bill Seleno on his quest to open up a new restaurant, The Keys.  Eater was posting about the story, and even made it “of note” in the most anticipated openings of the season.  On December 12th, there was paperwork. It looked like it was going to happen.  And then it didn’t.

The financial burden that the space was going to bring with it turned out to be much more than any new restaurant should take on and Bill just didn’t feel comfortable bringing anyone else into a space that started out with that much burden. The more they tried to make it happen, the more skeletons fell out of that closet, to the tune of likely doubling the anticipated debt. So Bill had to make the very tough decision to move on, even though he still believes in the concept and what it could have been. (And as far as I can tell, the space remains closed with no new tenants…)

I have been missing a location to have Chef Bill’s awesome food and was hoping for a triumphant return.  And now… it’s here:

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Sure that blue taped sign behind security bars doesn’t look like much, but there was magic brewing inside. Chef Bill invited me for a friends and family menu tasting a few weeks ago to check out his new venture, King’s CLAM BAR.

Bill returned home after a whirlwind adventure around the country traveling, consulting, and cooking.  When he needed a place to crash, his old friend Anthony Casagrande, whom he worked with at Guastavino’s 15 years ago, offered him a place to stay.  Anthony’s cousins lived upstairs and owned a local dive bar that needed some help. It took a few months to put the pieces together, but a concept of a casual clam bar seemed perfect for the space, so Bill met up with Steve (the current owner) and decided to make it happen as chef and partial owner.  Bill brought along Heather Carter, who was going to be part of The Keys project, and just a few weeks later I am walking from the Barclay’s center to check out Bill’s new restaurant. Heather will be running the beer and wine program for the restaurant.

With King’s CLAM BAR, Bill plans to make the food he loves to make.  It will be primarily sea food and will be as local and as sustainable as possible.  He is using Sea to Table as his sea food supplier and they are right at the Brooklyn docks, with the goal of having everything that arrives on your plate caught within the last day.  It’s a bit more expensive to go this route, but Bill’s commitment to “True Food” is a very important part of the restaurant.

The concept is to serve the fish barbeque style with a menu that allows you to check off what you would like.  The fish will be portioned into specific quantities (quarter pound/4 ounces) and then you can order as much or as little as you would like).  Bill plans to cook the fish itself very simply with salt, pepper, and lemon in a banana leaf so the core of the fish dishes allow you to truly taste the flavor of fresh fish.  Then the idea is to mix and match and create whatever flavor profile you would like by combining any number of the 6 sauces (hot and cold) and 6 salads (potato, cole slaw, etc.) available.  Some sauce ideas right now are Smoked Yogurt and Whole Grain Mustard Sauce, Pepperoncini and Tomato Scampi Sauce, Spicy Ginger and Cilantro Sauce, Black Garlic and Dill Cream Sauce (YES!), and Charred Jalapeno Tartar Sauce.

The menu will also have a section from the kitchen (which, by the way, consists of 2-3 induction stoves, a double tack oven, and a smoker outside… no easy task) which will include (my favorite) mussels with black garlic and charred rosemary, a shrimp, chorizo, and pepperoncini scampi, and seared scallops with potato and bacon.  There will also be the clam dip (which I really enjoyed, and hope they serve with bagel chips!), shrimp and lobster rolls, and a few fun things from the smoker, such as a pig roast and clam bake.

The entire meal is meant to be family style and very casual. The waiters will be casual but very knowledgeable, knowing the source of all their products, including their beers.

Bill served up some great food that night, including an incredibly flavorful shrimp cocktail (with homemade sauce), Granny’s New England Clam Chowder (made with a very old fashioned recipe that involved boiling the chowder so the bottom rises to the top), mussels (which were a version of the mussels that made me fall in love with Bill’s food in the first place many years ago at Albert Hall Tavern, which is sadly gone), a potato salad (which was incredibly delicious with bacon in it), ceviche, clam dip (awesome), and then some smoked pig butt sliders.

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It was all the Chef Bill food I absolutely loved.  Fresh, flavorful, with a little something special.

Tonight they will do the soft opening for the neighborhood to iron out some kinks with the system.  Most notably, Bill’s small, all-electric kitchen can’t necessarily pump out a ton of food all at once, so the food will come out as it’s ready.  Today will allow for the mishaps and the experimentation that is needed to allow it to be as good as it can be.  And then tomorrow will be the Grand Opening:

They will be serving dinner only at first and then expand from there. They will also have some special events like a patio pig roast and clam back with beer specials while the weather is nice.

The space is getting there. I’ve been watching their evolution on their Facebook page and cannot wait to drop by this weekend to see what they’ve done:

The patio out back:

Chef Bill at his newly painted red grill on the patio:

I cannot wait to have a home base to try all the food that Chef Bill is so passionate about. I have never been disappointed by a Bill prepared meal and I’m really looking forward to trying out his new restaurant.  Very excited for him.

The location is 622 Washington Ave between Pacific Street and Dean Street in Brooklyn. It’s four blocks from the Barclay’s Center and very close to the Clinton/Washington Street stop on the C train and all of the other trains that go into Atlantic Terminal.

See you there!

(For the menu and the first review of the food from Opening Weekend, check out the review here)

 

A Restaurant Is Born: The Paperwork is In!

12 Dec

It has been an unbelievably long road to open The Keys. (For a full recap of the story so far, you can start from the first post of “A Restaurant is Born”) The original open date was aimed for Summer 2012, and here we are at the end of the year, without a place to enjoy Chef Bill’s awesome food.

The owners were really the hold up here.  Paperwork just would not move along since there were so many cooks in the kitchen (pun intended) on the owner’s side.  They went through 3 different lawyers, and each new lawyer wanted his own new deal.  Once word came that they could move forward, it still took a full 5 weeks to get the contract together.  They had to figure out the exact terms to keep the owners on as partners (at 25%) so they still were invested in the restaurant to everyone’s satisfaction. Finally, the contract was signed this past week! It required 6 owners and partners to sign, from all over the world.

The design firm that was going to invest is no longer going to be used, because 10% is a big chunk to give away.  There is a new architect involved now named Shay who works for Perkins Eastman. He is busy getting measurements and putting the plans together so they can start construction the moment the lease is signed.  They hope this will be just a week or two away so they can be in there by mid-December. This will allow the Concession (you can read more about what a Concession from this previous post) to extend to March, giving the restaurant time to get on its feet.

There is a $150K budget for the full build out and equipment. The brick oven is a key piece of the restaurant, but repairing it will cost about $8K, so it has got to be worth it! Bill is busy figuring out some awesome dishes that can come out of it, including suckling pig, plank seafood, and, of course, the homemade bread.  (Bill is posting about some ideas on The Keys’ Facebook page. Go on over and become a fan!) Bill is also excited about putting in smokers, so he can make his own bacon and the bar can make smoked ice for cocktails.   The outside patio will get a new fortified roof so he can have an herb and chili garden on top.  He also plans to put a macro grower in the kitchen so he can grow some super sized greens.  The in-season menu is back in play.  Shay is already taking measurements and making sketches and I’ll be posting more about this in the next few weeks when things start getting really exciting and we see how the physical restaurant changes.

Bill is ambitious and hopes to have a Friends & Family opening by the last week of January.  He will start with dinner, then add lunch a month later, and brunch when the weather warms up.  There will be Jazz music downstairs, which will start up right at opening, and Bill plans to have some house instruments so that Jazz musicians will look at The Keys as a place to just stop by and jam from 11-4am.  There will also be a DJ on the weekends with molecular bottle service downstairs.  This is not going to be a club scene, however, and more for people who will be excited that the cocktails include homemade bitters.

I am excited to say that it is finally time to announce where the restaurant will be!  The Keys will be bringing great food and music to Mulberry Street, between Prince and Spring Streets, in the space currently occupied by the Australian restaurant, 8 Mile Creek.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks as the construction starts and the menu takes form!