All About Greywind, the Newest Restaurant From Loring Place’s Dan Kluger

1. It’s got an all-star staff in the front and back of house.

Long before he opened Loring Place in 2016, Kluger was the executive chef at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s James Beard award-winning restaurant, abc kitchen, where market-driven, organic, and seasonal dishes take center stage. Before that, Kluger also worked in kitchens led by chefs like Tom Colicchio (The Core Club) and Floyd Cardoz (groundbreaking Tabla), and at Greywind, he’s using this as an opportunity to assemble his own dream team of industry vets.

In the back of house, executive chef Caitlin Giamario comes to Greywind from Loring Place where she has long been Kluger’s right hand and trusted collaborator; she was partly responsible for the beloved Grandma pizza that ultimately helped keep Loring Place afloat during the pandemic. Kluger recruited pastry chef Jake Novick-Finder (Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe) specifically for his enthusiasm for helming a full bakery operation that will include house-milled flours. (More on that to follow.) And out front, food and beverage director Chelsea Carrier (Zahav, Eleven Madison Park) oversees a deep wine list filled with New York wines that match Greywind’s hyper local point of view.

“We really just enjoyed working together and bouncing things off each other,” says Kluger of working with the team, noting that every aspect of the food menu involved a full-team approach.

2. The vibe is Hudson Valley meets Hudson Yards.

“Modern Hudson Valley farmhouse” is the best way to describe Greywind. “It was really this idea of a country house just outside the city, and what that means to a lot of us,” says Kluger.

With a design by Parts and Labor, who also designed Roosevelt Island’s Panorama Room, Savannah’s The Grey, and D.C.’s Anchovy Social, the result is a cozy but elegant farmhouse feel with brass fixtures, lots of natural wood, and blue-gray tones throughout. Do note: You’ll want to be sure to check out the wallpaper, a blustery pattern in gray, that eventually inspired the restaurant’s name.

Greywind was designed to feel like someone’s home, and in keeping with that, you’ll find features that encourage gathering; the bar area has a communal table that seats up to 12, crowned by a rustic chandelier. Molding and wainscotting details on the walls and pillars create fireplace silhouettes. Warm lighting casts the room in a sunset glow at any time of day, enhanced by the similarly glowing, farmhouse-evocative paintings selected by Sugarlift.

Also on theme is its location: Greywind is to Hudson Yards what the Hudson Valley is to Manhattan, which is to say: just a little north, and away from the chaos. Greywind’s location at the corner of 10th Avenue and 35th Street is part of the greater Hudson Yards district that’s steadily expanded on Manhattan’s far west side, but is separated from the maze-like Hudson Yards complex by a couple of blocks. In other words: You shouldn’t have any trouble finding the entrance, as is the case with some other nearby restaurants in the area.

3. Expect classic Dan Kluger-style cooking with some new twists.

Throughout his career, Kluger has staked his culinary claim on greenmarket cooking, forging relationships with several local farms during his cooking tenure in New York restaurants. Those farms also get top billing at Greywind, as do their vegetables.

“At Loring Place, we’d take sugar snap peas that were charred and then toss them in a vinaigrette,” says Kluger. “Here we’re back to the sugar snap peas, but in this case, they’re done three different ways, utilizing some different techniques and every little bit of vegetable.” You find them in the form of pea and asparagus fritters that appear on the snack menu, as well as sugar snap peas with a bonito vinaigrette and Middlebury blue cheese under small bites; the peas also make an appearance in the diver scallops entrée with spring green curry and vegetable sambal.

Rotisserie cooking, a new approach for Kluger, will also be a centerpiece of Greywind’s menu. “With each project, I’ve always tried to incorporate some new piece of equipment in some form, to learn something new,” he says. Filling the dining room with the warmth and aromas of a rotisserie oven also seemed like a natural fit for a modern farmhouse. At Greywind, whole Cornish game hen and duck breast get the rotisserie treatment, as do vegetables, like a spit-roasted cauliflower with apricot chermoula and pistachios.

4. You might see Kluger up close and in action in the kitchen from time to time.

In a private area that’s separated from the dining room, and with a window into the kitchen, you’ll find an eight-seat chef’s counter where Kluger and Giamario offer a true chef’s table experience. (By day, it’s where The Bakery at Greywind will be once it opens, too.)

“Caitlin and I are cooking a full-on tasting menu ourselves, just me and her,” says Kluger, who notes he hasn’t cooked a tasting menu in more than a decade, since before his well-loved à la carte menus at ABC Kitchen and Loring Place. The tasting menu might borrow from the existing menu in Greywind’s dining room, but Kluger says it’ll change monthly based on a specific theme. Up first: a retrospective tasting of dishes that have inspired Kluger throughout his lifetime, to celebrate his recent 50th birthday. A tribute menu to Floyd Cardoz, Kluger’s late chef mentor from some of his early kitchen days at Tabla, has also been teased.

5. “Local” is the best way to describe the drinks.

“When we started chatting about the beverage program, it really came down to the produce that [Kluger] was using, and the farmers that he was working with, and how we can really emulate that same idea of highlighting seasonal ingredients,” says Carrier, Greywind’s food and beverage director. Expect to see a snap pea cocktail, for example, and do note that the cocktail list will change seasonally.

In that same vein, wine, beer, and spirits celebrate New York producers, with a wine by-the-glass list that showcases a greater share of local labels than you’d typically find in a fine dining restaurant. Carrier reached out personally to several heavy-hitters from the North Fork and the Finger Lakes to feature unique cuvées. There’s a lush Bordeaux blend from fourth-generation winemaker — and the North Fork’s only Master of Wine — Gabriella Macari at Macari Vineyards; a multi-varietal rosato from Channing Daughters, the North Fork winery largely responsible for building the region’s reputation for high-quality rosé; and a Finger Lakes Riesling from Keuka Lake. Naturally, Hudson Whiskey also has a front row, backbar spot, too.

6. There’s more on the way.

In the coming months, you can look forward to The Bakery at Greywind, a grab-and-go concept that will operate out of a separate entrance on 35th Street; the same space transforms into the chef’s table in the evening. Of course, there’s a bacon-egg-and-cheese option, but also sourdough croissants, cinnamon buns with Hudson Valley pears, and a variety of house-milled bread loaves, all capped off with local coffee and teas. The bakery is slated to open next month.

Also forthcoming, likely in the summer, is Spygold, a den-like cocktail lounge with a working fireplace in Greywind’s lower level. And while “Spygold” sounds like it was pulled from the James Bond canon, it’s still very much on theme, referring to a species of Hudson Valley-grown apple.

Greywind is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
 

Pamela Vachon is freelance writer, wine and cheese educator, and voice actor based in Astoria, Queens. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.