The restaurant is located in a prime spot in the West Village. Photo: Jeremy Liebman
Welcome to Grub Street's Fall 2024 Restaurant Preview, where this week we take a closer look at the upcoming openings we're most excited about.
When Jenni Guizio was looking for a chef to head up the kitchen of her new restaurant, she never expected to be captivated by the artichoke soup prepared by Maxime Pradier while auditioning for the role. “That's bold,” Guizio remembers thinking. She ended up taking home leftovers from the meal.
As it turned out, they both wanted the same thing: After quitting his job as chef at Lodi's in Rockefeller Center, Pradier decided to look for a place with fewer than 50 seats, creative control over the menu, and “a really strong front-of-house operations partner.” Guizio had been working in restaurants since he was 18, and eventually became director of wine and beverage for Union Square Hospitality Group. (The group would later be joined by partner Mark Shami and general manager Corey Holt, who had first worked under Guizio at Maialino and would also help oversee wine.)
When Guizio found the West Village space, she decided to name it after Marie Zimmerman, the 20th-century queer designer known for her jewelry and metalwork, who pioneered the Arts and Crafts movement and inherited her family's Pennsylvania farm. Jimmy's interiors are named after her, with Arts and Crafts-era décor that references Zimmerman's metalwork and the woodwork of her contemporary, Wharton Esherick. Guizio, who designed the space, combined antiques with pieces commissioned from local artisans, including a Pennsylvania glass blower who created the light fixtures. “It's all very craft-based,” she says.
Guizio and Pradier in the space that will become Jimmy's. Jeremy Liebman.
Guizio and Pradier in the space that will become Jimmy's. Jeremy Liebman.
Pradier, a New York native and partner in the restaurant, describes his kitchen ethos with the word “craft.” His inspiration is his grandmother, an Italian-born Frenchwoman who exposed him to the cuisines of various regions, including Lombardy in northern Italy, Nouvelle Aquitaine in southwestern France, and Provence in southeast France. He sums up the style with the French words “like the old country,” which he translates here in New York as “time-consuming, craft-based, regional French cuisine with a touch of Italian flavor through Provence and some well-known classics.” He says the menu could include trout mi cuit with beans, chanterelles, and clams; lamb stew with capers, olives, and summer savory; and Van Island mussels stuffed with costata romanesco squash and saffron. Or bottarga on goat-buttered rye toast.
The menu will change seasonally, but Pradier said the Nicoise pissedalière he prepared for Ghizio at the first tasting will be on the menu permanently, and pasta will always be available. The tasting also featured a saffron and yellow Chartreuse soufflé, which might make an occasional appearance but will be made by pastry chef Harper Zapp, who Pradier met at Lord Stanley's San Francisco residency in 2022.
Zap will introduce diners to dishes such as fougasse sucre (sweet brioche scented with orange blossom water) from Aiguemortes, a medieval town in the south of France; chocolate pavé inspired by Paris' Le Baratin bordered with crème anglaise; a fig leaf and honey millefeuille; and ice cream infused with a generous amount of vanilla to achieve a surprisingly earthy gray hue.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read the print version, this article will also be available in the August 26, 2024 issue of New York Magazine.
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