Priya's birthday dinner at ABC Kitchen

We went to ABC Kitchen for Priya's birthday... It was outstanding, and we're already planning to return. The menu and waitstaff seemed very Brooklyn (impeccably sourced farm-to-table food served on mismatched vintage plates by hipsters wearing uniforms of plaid shirts, chunky eyeglasses, and Chuck Taylors), but the Manhattan prices, link to a celebrity chef (Jean-Georges Vongerichten), and servers stepping in to refold our napkins whenever we left the table made it very clear which borough we were in...

Since we're not drinking right now, I started with an $11 glass of juice (The Local," with beet, carrot, apple, and ginger, I think?) and Priya had a ginger-lime soda... Both were delicious:


Terrible picture because we were in a hurry to eat, but this was one of the best things we got... a fried egg over roasted cauliflower with onion and walnut crumbs:



Crab toast with lemon aioli...believe it or not, I ATE MAYONNAISE!


Per a friend who works there's recommendation, we tried the egg-and-mushroom whole-wheat pizza. It was a little oversoaked in mushroom liquids in the middle, but still really good. We wanted the special brussels sprout pizza but the last one was ordered out from under us. Maybe by Arianna Huffington, who was at the next table interviewing someone I didn't recognize...

Celery root and apple salad. How do they get the spicy tarragon croutons to be so amazingly crispy/soft/delicious? We thought they must have been deep-fried...


Cornmeal-crusted skate wing, squash with maple syrup and lime (and probably more than 50% butter), kale:


Completely boneless (but with all the parts--breast, dark meat, etc--all fused together--maybe with meat glue?) piece of super-crispy fried chicken over collard greens with hot-sauce butter:


Chocolate cake with malted chocolate ganache and toasted-marshmallow frosting:


Next time we're going to order a bunch of appetizers and small plates instead of entrees, I think, just because so many things on the menu look so good.