Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group Opens North End Grill With Executive Chef/Partner Floyd Cardoz

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) and Executive Chef/Partner Floyd Cardoz are pleased to announce the opening of North End Grill (104 North End Avenue at Murray Street; 646-747-1600). North End Grill is a re-imagined American bar and grill, located in northern Battery Park City. The menu emphasizes grilling techniques to highlight the flavors of carefully sourced, seasonal ingredients, with a strong focus on seafood. The open kitchen features custom-designed wood-burning grills in which seafood, meats, vegetables, and more will be cooked.  North End Grill marks the return of Chef Floyd Cardoz, winner of Bravo's Top Chef Masters Season 3 and the founding chef/partner of Tabla. He is reunited with General Manager Kevin Richer, who operated Tabla along with Floyd, and who opened Untitled at the Whitney Museum for USHG in 2011.

North End Grill is open weekdays for lunch, with dinner and weekend brunch starting later in the month.  Grilled dishes appear throughout the menu's categories, which include Appetizers, Eggs, Salads, and Entrees, as well as a Grill section with steaks, chops and fish. Dishes include Pumpkin-Crab Soup; Soft Scrambled Eggs with Hen of the Woods Mushrooms and Grilled Bread; Grilled Calamari with Preserved Lemon and Sherry Vinaigrette; Seared Diver Scallops with Cauliflower; Grilled Sea Bream with Salsa Verde, Cabbage and Bacon; and Berkshire Pork Chop with Charcoal Grilled Shishito Peppers and Cippolini Onions.

Pastry Chef Alexandra Ray, formerly of USHG's Gramercy Tavern, oversees the restaurant's desserts, featuring updates on classic, comforting desserts. These include Lemon Meringue Pie with Candied Almonds; Butterscotch Pot de Creme, Chocolate Streusel Single "Maltmallows"; Brown Butter Cheese Cake, Pear Confit and Buttermilk Sherbet; Chocolate Pecan Layer Cake, Chocolate Chip-Bourbon Ice Cream; and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Ginger Ice Cream.

Guests first enter a warm and vibrant bar area, with tables and drink rails, as well as a wall-length cabinet that highlights the extensive selection of scotches. The lovingly curated scotch menu includes over 100 varieties, available by the Wee Dram (1.5 ounces), Fair Measure (2 Wee Drams), Flask (4 Wee Drams), Nip (Half a Wee Dram) and Plank (3 Nips of your choice). The restaurant also boasts a value-driven list of New and Old World grill-friendly wines, selected by USHG's wine director John Ragan, in his first effort since earning the Wine Spectator's Grand Award for his work at Eleven Madison Park, and North End Grill's Beverage Director Jason Hopple, formerly of The Modern. The restaurant's cocktail program highlights the selection of both well-known and rare scotches, with drinks such as the Gaslight, a riff on the Rusty Nail, which combines scotch, Cointreau, sweet vermouth and Drambuie and the Scotch Bonnet, which includes scotch, Lillet Blanc, lemon juice and lavender honey. Other cocktails include the North End Punch, made with Jamaican rum, brandy, peach brandy and chilled black tea and the Tamarind Margarita, a Tabla favorite that includes tequila, orange liqueur and tamarind juice.

The 140-seat restaurant is designed by award-winning architecture firm Bentel & Bentel, whose work for USHG includes Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, and Blue Smoke. Guests may dine at the kitchen counter with no reservations and observe the culinary activity. Walking past the kitchen, diners are greeted by a seafood display area and pastry station before entering the main dining room, which features custom-designed dark blue leather booths and banquettes referencing the bentwood style, as well as a wall made of reclaimed Wyoming snow fence post. Unlike the narrow street fronts common in NYC restaurants, North End Grill has an expansive street front of approximately 300 feet, which allows for beautiful natural light and views of the Irish Hunger Memorial and the Hudson River.

"Floyd, my partners and I conceived North End Grill to celebrate its neighborhood – adjacent to the Hudson River and across the street from TriBeCa," says USHG restaurateur Danny Meyer.  "We're excited to serve the people who live and work there – and also to introduce this peaceful plot of Manhattan to others who may never have heard of North End Avenue. People adored Floyd's cooking at Tabla – and they're in for a real treat when they taste what he's up to now."

Dazzling black and white photographs from acclaimed photographer Mariana Cook (http://marianacook.com/) are displayed throughout the restaurant. Cook uses film instead of working digitally to create her timeless images. The selected photos include images of a "Blind Chicken" from a coop in northwestern Connecticut; a Chez Panisse "Mushroom"; "Leeks," which she found at an outdoor market in Basel, Switzerland; and "Hazelnuts" that were photographed before being made into a chocolate cake. Best known for her intimate character studies of people, both in and out of the public eye, Cook's photographs are featured in numerous collections, including New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art; the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris. Numerous books of her photographs have been published, including Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries (Damiani, Fall 2011) and the forthcoming Justice: Faces Behind the Human Rights Revolution.

North End Grill is open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., with dinner and weekend lunch service to start later this month.  The restaurant is located at 104 North End Avenue at Murray Street, in New York City.  Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling (646) 747-1600. For more information, please visit www.northendgrillnyc.com

About USHG

Best known for its unique blend of excellent food and warm hospitality, Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) includes some of New York City's most beloved restaurants: Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 (located at the Museum of Modern Art), Maialino, Untitled at the Whitney, and North End Grill. Other innovative and growing businesses from USHG include the catering, culture, sports and events company Union Square Events, and Hospitality Quotient, a consulting and learning business focusing on bettering work environments and customer relationships across industries. Actively involved in the community, USHG and its employees are committed to extending its enlightened hospitality beyond the walls of its restaurants. The company supports an array of hunger relief organizations, including Share Our Strength and City Harvest, and civic organizations such as NYC & Company, Union Square Partnership, and the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Meyer, his restaurants, and chefs have earned an unprecedented 24 James Beard Awards, as well as numerous other media accolades. The restaurants have consistently appeared on Zagat's Most Popular list, with Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern perennially ranked among the top five restaurants in New York City. www.ushgnyc.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NORTH END GRILL, PLEASE CONTACT
SARAH ABELL (x108) ([email protected]) OR CAMILLA FERENCZI (x105) ([email protected]) AT BALTZ & COMPANY - 212.982.8300.

SOURCE Union Square Hospitality Group