This Food & Wine Magazine’s restaurant is located in Nolita. It is interesting concept for a dinning experience. The menu is created by Food & Wine Best New Chefs, each month they have different guest chefs, who add few of their dishes to regular menu. This week it was chef Linton Hopkins from Atlanta, best chef of 2009.

The restaurant is large with a different prep stations in the middle, general design is industrial but cozy, welcoming space; however, it felt soulless. It felt like it was a factory, where each sous chef has their own routine preparing the same dishes all night long. I understand it is their job, but somehow I would like to see some more enthusiasm and passion about the food.

We were seated by the bar/prep station and we had a good view of everything that was going on in the kitchen. The service was quick with a lot of staff serving all the guests. The menu is not exciting, but since there are different guest chefs every other week, there are dishes that constantly change and that part is very interesting. Just after we placed our order we were served uneventful basked of bread with salty butter. That was disappointing as I expect more innovative way of serving this simple starter. There are so many ways and variations you can do with a basket of bread.

We ordered the following dishes:

- Broccoli Piazzetta - it is freshly baked small pizza, with walnut pesto, cheeses and chili flakes. Who does not like fresh pizza? It was great starter for the table, chili flakes are a must in this dish, otherwise it would be too mild.

- Maine Diver Scallops - this dish was prepared before piazzeta and when it arrived, the scallops were barely warm. I think that was just a mistake or a mixed up with the order. Two scallops were on quinoa bed with meyer lemon and calabrian chili oil. Surprisingly quinoa was partially crispy and full of flavor. Scallops were nicely cooked, but again almost cold, since there were sitting on a counter waiting for the pizza to be made.

- Wild Alaskan Halibut with swiss chard, mushroom-star anise broth - tasty, salty broth dictated the flavor for entire dish as the fish was delicate, mushrooms were good earthy addition.

- Pork & Beans with sea island peas, baby lima beans and sausage - this was guest chef's dish. It looked like a stew and although flavors were distinctive, somehow this was too close to home cook execution. For a best chef dish at this type of place we expected more sophisticated dish. Maybe southern flavors with a twist, instead of pork skin, beans and sausage mixed together.

- Toffee cake - this was special dessert for the night and it was delicious, toffee sponge cake with layers of cream covered in warm carmel sauce. The presentation and the sweetness were exactly what you want to have for a dessert.

- Profiteroles - three different kinds of cookies with ice cream filling, well executed dessert, but the flavors were exactly what we expected.

The winner dish for this week is Maine Diver Scallops with quinoa. Actually quinoa stole the spot from the scallops, the flavors, spices and crispiness were new, different and tasty. If you have a chance to visit Chefs Club I recommend this appetizer.

In summary, this is a nice restaurant for a dinner, but there are many nice restaurants in NYC. That is not enough to stand our in the crowd. I am surprised by some of the shortcomings. This is Food & Wine’s restaurant, culinary world is what they represent. They dictate the standards, yet few dishes were just too simple, too casual and lacked creativity. The venue is worth checking it out, but only checking it out.

Cuisine: American

Avg price per person: $75

Attire: Casual

Overall Rating: 3 plates