Chalk Point Kitchen, As Local As it Gets

You can barely glance at a menu in New York these days without seeing words like artisanal, local, and organic. But when Chalk Point Kitchen, the new Soho restaurant from Sons of Essex's Matt Levine, calls itself "market to table," it's not kidding. More than just a trend, "organic is a way of life these days," according to executive chef Joe Isidori.

The restaurant, which opens next Wednesday on Broome street, sources its bread at Grandaisy in Tribeca, its oysters in Montauk, its poultry in the Hudson Valley, and nearly every other ingredient from somewhere within the tri-state area. That doesn't mean the menu doesn't dip its toes in more exotic flavors, though. "Chinatown is in our backyard," Matt pointed out on a recent evening during one of the restaurant's pre-opening dinners attended by OC family. Asian influences are mixed in with the farmhouse vibe: amid the Berkshire pork chop and Maine lobster are sea scallop sashimi, Misoyaki Arctic Char, and a spicy Vietnamese beef salad. Even classic dishes like the Rhode Island mussels are served with kimchi.

The decor also references New York's rich cultural landscape. The ceilings in the kitchen, for instance, are covered with prints of Jean-Michel Basquiat's paintings, "to inspire creativity," according to Matt. Downstairs at the Handy Liquor Bar (named after Thomas Handy, the New Orleans bartender who invented the Sazerac) an assortment of Bob Gruen photos hang on the walls.

The bar, filled with cozy Chesterfield couches, shouldn't disappoint either once it opens on April 15, whether for afternoon meetings or late-night dancing by the jukebox. And its drinks will be spiked with an assortment of fresh herbs grown upstairs among a ledge lit by grow lamps. At 20 feet from the kitchen, that's about as local as it gets.