Pinky Swear

New York Restaurant Pinky Swear Features Interactive Art, Food, and Cocktails | Eater NY

"Set to debut this spring on the Lower East Side at 171 Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey streets) on Thursday, April 24, this 3,000-square-foot bar/restaurant/art space blends dining, drinking, interactive art, and playfulness and will seat up to 150 across three main areas (including a bar and a gallery with permanent exhibitions and shows) plus an outdoor courtyard with a firepit and tableside s'mores service. "We want to bring people into this new really hyper creative experience," the culinary director tells Eater, distinguishing the project from solely art spaces like Luna Luna or the forthcoming New York location of Meow Wolf. As Horowitz puts it, "It’s not a restaurant with really good art; it’s not purely an art space that happens to have some food. It’s really a merge [of] the two. And we really want to be able to surprise people." Interactive elements deliberately skew playful and uncanny: token-operated pay phones that "talk" to customers; wearable headsets that control lights; parking meters that "pay" people for their time; busts that whisper; and the team's invented game of CuePutt, billiards played on a ying-yang shaped pool table. The design team includes interior designer Jeanette Didon and architect Sebastian Quinn (who have worked together on retro-ish Flower Shop and Nordic-leaning Kabin), with interaction designer Nathan Roth (artist in residence at the Downtown Project in Las Vegas) and the Founders Path Art Collective helping create the interactive installations. The food leans heavily into what Horowitz does best, using very local ingredients like kelp, Montauk red shrimp, and New Jersey yuzu in unexpected ways: "I’m really excited about trying to take not-common ingredients, and trying to work them into really fun, creative dishes," Horowitz says, and "What I liked about it is that there’s no rules," Horowitz says. "No one really knows what it is, and to be honest that’s kind of my Graceland." Sample dishes described include crab, Boursin cheese, and sweet potato doughnuts "served almost like our version of Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins," says Horowitz; a sort-of tart with aged swordfish belly lardo, olive oil, and yuzu; smoked scallops with a black walnut mousse, caviar, and finger limes; a burger made with brisket and Cheez Whiz; tilefish pastrami with mole and acorn squash; fried duck wings with a roasted pineapple tzatziki; and kelp-marinated carrots. Drinks have musical names and playful twists: the Paul’s Boutique is a take on the Paper Plane with apricot and mole bitters; Burning Down the House is a margarita with a syrup made out of everything bagels; and a selection of "Pinky Promises" (two shorts per order) includes Blitzkrieg Bop with mezcal, cold brew, Chartreuse, and chile, alongside a short wine and beer list. The cocktail menu was developed with bar consultant Jon Nutter (formerly of Attaboy, Pouring Ribbons, and ABC Kitchen) and Darwin Pornel (formerly of Mister Paradise). Owners include South American hotel group Grand Hotels Lux (which operates luxury hotels in Uruguay and Argentina), Daniel Picciotto (who co-wrote some songs on Khalid’s album American Teen), and Mark Croitoro (a former professional table tennis player); Horowitz—an East Village character who previously spearheaded the zine-like East Village Cookbook, co-founded (with his siblings) Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co. and Ducks Eatery (both now closed), and authored the preservation cookbook Salt Smoke Time—also has a personal ping-pong connection to Croitoroo (Horowitz played ping-pong professionally as a child and Croitoroo later reached out after playing at Spin)." - Nadia Chaudhury