Restaurant Spotlight
Posted by estiator at 16 April, at 08 : 42 AM Print
Tribeca’s Kitchen
200 Church Street, New York, NY | tribecaskitchen.com
Every restaurant is a labor of love. But for Andy Koutsoudakis, Jr., who just reopened Manhattan’s renowned Tribeca’s Kitchen, the words have special meaning. Koutsoudakis’ father, Andy Koutsoudakis, Sr., passed away in 2020 of complications from Covid-19. He was just 59.
A kind of unofficial mayor of the neighborhood, Andy Sr. opened Tribeca’s Kitchen in downtown Manhattan in 2014. For three decades, he also operated Gee Whiz Diner nearby until selling it in 2015.When he died, his son faced a crossroads. Tribeca’s Kitchen, a local mainstay that also drew colorful crowds of locals and visitors, had shut down because of coronavirus restrictions. Should it reopen?
“I didn’t want to rush,” Andy Koutsoudakis, Jr., tells Estiator. “I started wondering, ‘What am I preserving here?’ Because I realized that without my father, it’s never going to be the same.”
Neighbors and customers “started getting in touch, telling me they were too sad to come in. Even my mother said, ‘I don’t know when I can come in again. It’s never going to be the same.”
But the conversations also gave Koutsoudakis a wakeup call about the iconic restaurant. “My dad came here with nothing. He made it under more difficult circumstances than anything I’m dealing with,” he says. “How do I preserve the service, warmth, hospitality, and inclusiveness he believed in?”
The answer is Tribeca’s Kitchen version 2.0. After nearly a year in lockdown, the restaurant reopened in February with new decor, a celebrated chef, an elevated menu, and new energy. What hasn’t changed, Koutsoudakis says, is the “love” of the original.“
Andy Koutsoudakis Jr. 
Chef Jack Logue
That’s what I wanted to preserve,” he says. “It’s what’s always stayed in place—love, service, a feeling of home, of safety. Never has the world needed that more.”
In other ways, Tribeca’s Kitchen has been completely rebooted, in ways its old customers may not expect. “Let me do what my father always did—earn my way,” Koutsoudakis says. “Not everyone will get it. I’m going to create a story. It’s a story about the evolution of diners. It’s about how important it is, in times like these, to love your neighbor. It’s about philoxenia, befriending the stranger.”
The dinner and brunch menus were created by a new executive chef—Jack Logue, veteran of Michelin-starred kitchens at Clock-work and Betony. Anyone expecting a Reuben or hash browns might be surprised by entrées like Maine scallop crudo or braised ox cheek.
Brunch might mean house-smoked pastrami with apple kimchi on marble rye. Bread is baked in-house. Sauces and condiments will be created in the kitchen. A gleaming new La Marzocco machine will crank out coffee drinks. Even ice cream will be made in-house.
Tribeca’s Kitchen is also boasting a sexy new cocktail program. A new beverage director, Tom Garvin, has designed a menu of juices and cocktails.
One drink, the “Andy’s Old Wisdom,” comes with a fatherly connection. “It’s our signature Old-Fashioned,” Koutsoudakis says. “The last time I had dinner with my dad was at Harry’s Steak House on Hanover Street [in Manhattan, owned by the Poulakakos family]. My dad rarely drank—he was a very committed, hardworking man, and it was hard for me to even get him to dinner. We had a four-hour dinner with several Old Mr. Johnsons. We talked and talked. It was such a special moment for me. That’s where the Andy’s Old Wisdom comes from.”
For the restaurant’s remodeled interior, Koutsoudakis re-created a family-home atmosphere. Designed primarily in black, white, and yellow, with matte-gold accents, the rooms feature “family photos on the wall, books on shelves. It’s a warm, welcoming feeling. You can let your guard down, and that’s accomplished through the design and through the training of employees,” he said.
Koutsoudakis also installed a new HVAC system and new ovens, and he redesigned the kitchen “so there are no two-level plate drops,” he says. “Instead of six line cooks, we have people around a center island, working as a team.” The entire project cost more than a million dollars, he says.
“Look, what I did during these most difficult times was all about my father,” Koutsoudakis says. “He was an exceptional man, and this is a unique and special way to mourn him—through this project that gave me a lot of purpose and meaning, bringing my life full circle.” Koutsoudakis also launched a Twitter hashtag, #LoveLikeAndy, to honor his father’s mission of “serving with love.”
A busy lawyer by day, Koutsoudakis has also been active in the battle against third-party delivery services (see Estiator April 2020), which he says are eroding the notion of hospitality itself. A vocal partner of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, he has also advocated for sensible reopening measures for the city’s restaurants. “
People come to you for an escape, a pause,” he says. “They want to shut off for 10 minutes or an hour from whatever’s going on in their lives. That’s what hospitality is about. But there’s no hospitality if there’s no in-person dining.”
The restaurant isn’t the only lasting tribute to the late Andy Koutsoudakis, Sr. When he passed away, with Tribeca’s Kitchen still shuttered, his son launched a campaign to raise money for face shields and N-95 masks for frontline essential workers battling coronavirus. The GoFundMe campaign raised nearly $55,000 and generated headlines across the city.
“Ultimately, I realized how much love my dad had given to complete strangers, and was given back through these donations so we could help others,” Koutsoudakis says. “That’s fundamental to Greeks, and to all people.”
