Starting a New Job

& happy NYC food moments of late

{A blurry interior photo of Cervo’s just before service}

I’m writing to update you that I start a new job next week! I fell hard for Hart’s on the 9th, but didn’t think anything would come of it; the restaurant has a two-person line, and I don’t have the experience to succeed in that setting yet. I shot my shot anyway, telling the chef after my shift that I loved being there and would be honored to learn from her. A few days later, she sent me an email with an offer to gain my sea legs at Cervo’s, their sister restaurant, before moving to Hart’s. Cervo’s has a slightly bigger kitchen and longer line than Hart’s, and just so happens to be one of my favorite places in the world—a taste of the Iberian Peninsula in Chinatown, New York City. I discovered Cervo’s early in my college years, and it became my go-to special occasion spot. My dad, Malcolm, and I dined there once at a table with a perfect view into the kitchen and devoured lamb burgers that rival my dad’s famous recipe. For Trevor’s birthday one July, I treated him to a Cervo’s meal—natural wine and fried monkfish with burst cherry tomatoes and aioli. On my twenty-first, just before the pandemic hit, a few friends and I took the train downtown to Cervo’s, where my mom met us, having driven four hours after work to surprise me at dinner. We drank cold vinho verde and ate paprika-dusted fried shrimp heads and skinny French fries and Basque cheesecake for dessert. So when the Hart’s chef suggested that I start at Cervo’s, I felt only warmth (and mild embarrassment for being a superfan who already owns their merch).

I asked to delay my official start until the 28th because Teo and Eliza arrive soon for my 23rd (!) birthday, but I went in for my first day of training last Thursday from 1 pm to 9:30 pm. The team was lively and funny, and we worked hard together, getting ready for dinner service in the downstairs prep area. I shelled fava beans (verdict: both meditative and demoralizing), debearded mussels, beheaded prawns, asked five hundred questions, and tried to absorb what everyone else was doing and where everything belonged. There’s no shortage of stimuli in a prep kitchen: pumping music, sharpening knives, toasting garlic. During service, I shadowed the garde manger line cook, who handed off a few dishes so that I could work with him on the line. My favorite thing to make was a citrus salad of mandarin rounds hit with flaky salt, olive oil, and flurries of smoked cheese. The food at Cervo’s has the same messy, beautiful, Portugal-meets-New York City energy as the food at Hart’s. But my time at both restaurants has proven that even the breeziest-seeming dishes demand real labor and love. I was drained by the end of my day at Cervo’s, and I hadn’t even worked a full shift at full force. It’ll take time to build the stamina for restaurant work, and it’s nice that I get to take a step back to recharge before I dive in.

I’ve had some delightful food experiences recently that I’ve been trying and failing to write about narratively, so here’s a lazy list:

• I boiled and baked two big batches of bagels to stock the freezer and charm Amelia, my glorious new roommate. 

• Allie and I adventured to Ugly Baby, a Thai restaurant in Carroll Gardens with food so spicy your lips start buzzing and eyes watering, but also so fresh and complex and delicious that you eat it all despite the discomfort.

• Bel introduced me to the transcendence that is a warm brownie with cold vanilla ice cream, sprinkled with flaky salt and drizzled with a peppery finishing olive oil. Trust.

• My dad made the last minute decision to visit over the weekend, and we dined at Fausto. The fresh pasta stole the show, but the lamb shank was phenomenal as well, falling off the bone with the subtlest nudge of a fork. I added the leftover meat to a homemade cast iron skillet pizza, not letting a scrap go to waste.

• I made a tomato & gigante bean bake (better known as ‘pizza beans’) on a whim the other night for an affordable, cozy dinner, and it sustained me and Amelia for a good week.

• I went for a walk one cold, clear morning recently and my feet LED ME to Greenberg’s Bagels in Bed Stuy, where I got a Very Good breakfast sandwich. New York knows how to do breakfast.

{Fried Turmeric Sea Bream at Ugly Baby}

{Again: trust.}

{Dad in New York!}

{A Greenberg’s SEC}

Mmm yep that’s all I have in me today. I’m off to babysit then prepare for my people to arrive over the next couple days. I love birthdays. Everybody’s birthdays!

Phoebe