Save yourself the trip to Washington, D.C. — as if anyone wants to be closer to the heart of American politics right now — and book a table at the New York City pop-up of one of its most popular restaurants, The Dabney.
Owner/chef Jeremiah Langhorne has brought his restaurant — and staff! — to the city for a three-month residency at Nolita’s Chefs Club called The Dabney NYC.
“We are trying to bring the most important aspects of the restaurant to a new space and audience,” Langhorne says. “We have focused on making the experience for diners similar to the one at The Dabney in D.C. by doing things like bringing in our same plateware and similar décor and crafting similar menu items.”
Trained in Charleston by Sean Brock, the chef who kicked off a Southern food renaissance in 2010 at his restaurant Husk, Langhorne has received similar accolades for reviving Mid-Atlantic cuisine at The Dabney, which the Washington Post chronicled in a 10-part series. The restaurant earned a Michelin star in its first year.
Langhorne gets much of his inspiration from historic cookbooks with an emphasis on foraging — a product of his apprenticeship at Copenhagen’s now-legendary Noma restaurant — and seasonal produce from local farms.
“To me, Mid-Atlantic cuisine is all about showcasing the amazing farmers and producers in our region, whether that means fish, produce, pork, cheese, you name it,” he says. “The geography of the Mid-Atlantic encompasses the Chesapeake Bay, Appalachian Mountains and plains of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, so that creates an enormous range and bounty of products that we are able to utilize.”
At The Dabney NYC, expect some of Langhorne’s signature dishes and a few New York-inspired additions. Fried catfish sandwiched in a sweet potato roll, Eastern shore-style chicken and dumplings served with root vegetables, Cape May lobster and grits, and marinated pork loin are just a few of the menu highlights.
Langhorne is also trying something new, opening a wine bar version of his restaurant called The Dabney Cellar with small plates and cocktails with housemade vinegars and syrups, in addition to a sizeable wine list.
One difference between D.C. and New York will be how the food is prepared. Langhorne uses a wood-burning hearth and cooks his food on the glowing embers. “In NYC, we are using grills to try to bring aspects of the flavor the hearth creates to our food,” he says.
Langhorne is the second chef-in-residence since Chefs Club switched up its format. What began in 2014 as a showcase for dishes created by Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs has pivoted from short pop-ups to long-term residencies.
“In the fall of 2017 we decided to shift the concept and exclusively feature long-term chef residencies, where we’d pick a chef, and they’d completely take over the restaurant — décor, menu, music, service, etc. to whatever they want,” a rep for the restaurant tells Metro.
“We realized over time that our guests loved the visiting chef dinners, where they could actually see a great chef in action, or try a menu that they normally couldn’t unless they had to travel far.”
The Dabney NYC is open now at 275 Mulberry St. through the end of March, Mon-Fri 5:30-10:30 p.m. and Sat. 5:30-11:30 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling 212-941-1100 or online through Resy.
