Cove

Flynn McGarry Opens His New Restaurant, Cove

"Designed as McGarry’s fantasy restaurant, Cove was drafted on AutoCAD before he even had a lease and built to last as the anchor tenant of a new Hudson Square development; every detail was calibrated to his specifications, from giant oil paintings of herbs and flowers by Frederik Nystrup-Larsen to the frames he personally built (he did not build the chairs because of insurance limits). He plans an eight-course “kitchen menu” (he avoids the phrase “tasting menu”), plus family-style dinners and à la carte options, and describes the approach as breezy and vegetable-forward — “a vegetable, with another vegetable, in a sauce.” Menu ideas mentioned include a carrot schnitzel, a revived cold corn soup from his Gem days, a reassembled grilled eggplant with wild rice and mushrooms and pickled herbs, and a lobster halved, rubbed with salted plum paste, stuffed with yellow beets, and topped with rose butter made from pickled petals; overall he’s aiming for simplicity and confident execution rather than excessive complexity." - Rachel Sugar