Julia Jaksic, Now Head Chef at Employees Only, Shows Off New MenuJulia Jaksic, underground-dinner-club hostess and consulting chef at Smith and Mills, has been named head chef at Employees Only (where she was previously a sous-chef) and has completely revamped the menu. Look for nods to her Croatian heritage: A hamburger that’s served on a fluffy pita with pepper paste and carmac, and (on the brunch menu) polenta with smoked bacon and sauerkraut and brown butter. A hamburger that’s served on a fluffy pita with pepper paste, and (on the brunch menu) polenta with smoked bacon and sauerkraut and brown butter. Berkshire bacon makes another appearance wrapped around New Zealand lamb chops — an appetizer that’s fast becoming the Employees Only equivalent of Freemans’ devils on horseback. The late-night menu has also been jazzed up, surely good news for industry types still reeling from the loss of wee hours eating at Mas (farmhouse).
Employees Only dinner menu
Related: Sign Up for Secret Dinner Club’s Weekend Time Warp
Openings
Smith and Mills: The Smallest Next Big Thing Ever
Last November we were the first to predict that the Beatrice would be the hipstaurant of the season. Um, we told you so? Now from Beatrice (and Employees Only) partner Matt Abramcyk comes another contender — this one occupying a former carriage house in the Tribeca nether lands. Smith and Mills is one of the smallest restaurants we’ve ever set foot in, but on this, its opening day, we don’t think it’s too early to say it may just be the next big thing.
Foodievents
Sign Up for Secret Dinner Club’s Weekend Time WarpThis week’s Ghetto Gourmet events are sold out, but you underground diners shouldn’t fret. Instead, put on your most convincing eighth-century Baghdad caliph outfits and cop an invite to one of the “Arabian Nights” meals that’ll be held in a Williamsburg loft on Friday and Saturday. The events are the latest dinner-and-dancing bashes inspired by hip historical scenes (fin de siècle Parisian parlors, twenties high-society New York) and thrown every few months by the founders of the Dinner Club: Hairdresser and antiques aficionado “Miss Amy” Burgess and chef “Miss Julia” Jaksic of Employees Only (and now the Beatrice). Previous events have featured Chinese wedding beds, chandeliers, even acrobats and swing bands, hence the $85 ticket price. This one promises to be just as lavish.
Openings
Paul Sevigny’s ‘Top Secret’ Beatrice: Hipster Restaurant of the
When we spoke to Paul Sevigny about his soon-to-open hipsteraunt (the second coming of onetime West Village speakeasy the Beatrice Inn), he at first told us “it’s kind of top secret.” (Doorman Angelo certainly wasn’t letting us in on the secret when we tried to crash Courtney Love’s party there on Halloween night.) But after throwing down with the beautiful people at actor-jeweler Waris Ahluwalia’s birthday bash last weekend, we can now let you in on the details of what looks to be the downtown set’s answer to the revival of Waverly Inn.
