A new restaurant and bar called Barley & Grain just opened on 80th street and Amsterdam, and people keep asking us “what is that place?” (Also, one person pointed out that barley is a grain, so the name is slightly redundant.) In short, it’s a restaurant with lots of comfort food like “cowboy steak” and short ribs and over 100 whiskeys. Barley & Grain is now open for dinner at 5 p.m., but hours are expected to expand soon.
One reader who has already gone tells us: “Service was nice but you can tell they have a few service kinks to work out (just by being a product of being less than a week old). Spoke to the GM and she was very friendly and wanted to make sure we had a positive experience. Huge drink menu and most dishes are sized and priced to be shared, seems like the first of its kind in our neighborhood. I’ll definitely be going back.”
A rep for the restaurant sent us the info below. The dinner menu is posted at the bottom.
Barley & Grain is an American restaurant and whiskey bar at 421 Amsterdam Avenue at 80th Street (646-360-3231). Bruce Kravetz and Mark Hausner, the owners of The Tangled Vine, have partnered with Amir Terem of Monaco (formerly occupying this space) to open this sister restaurant across the street from The Tangled Vine.
Consulting Chef Eli Kahlon (Gordon Ramsay at the London, Oceana, Balaboosta) has collaborated with Barley & Grain’s Chef Eric Aklowitz on a menu of American comfort food classics and steaks to accompany over 100 whiskies on offer. Menu items will weave in beer and whiskey influences including grains in salads, bourbon and stout glazes for meats and tobacco for smoke. Menu highlights include cowboy steak with tobacco onions and bourbon demi-glaze; beef short rib with stout glaze; a special blend burger on a pretzel bun, Catch of the Day with maitake and black barley and a porterhouse for two. Appetizers will include tuna crudo with barley; kohlrabi quinoa salad and vegetable croquettes with black lentils, chickpeas, zucchini and mint sheep’s yogurt.
An extensive list of 100 whiskies from the U.S., Scotland and Ireland features 40 single malt scotches and 60 ryes, bourbons and American whiskies, along with 12 rotating American craft beers on tap. The cocktail list is anchored in the classics while a selection of American wines rounds out the offerings (by comparison, The Tangled Vine only offers Old World wines). GM and Beverage Manager Jessica Friedman (The Tangled Vine) oversees the beverage program, including cocktails, most of which are brown-spirit based.
Wow — they almost had me interested, up until the “tobacco for smoke” bit.
The smell of tobacco smoke makes me physically ill. The smell of tobacco smoke reeking from a nicotine addict makes me physically ill.
And the reason I should now want my food to taste like the smell of tobacco smoke is what, exactly??
I guess this is yet another new place catering to the twenty-something Immortals. Imagine — in no time at all the neighborhood has gone from Big Nick’s to Emphysema Eateries.
It may be a little late in the day…but to put Cato’s mind at rest…according to my wife – who is a personal chef – Tobacco Onions are simply thinly sliced sweet onions (i.e. Vidalia), dredged in flour, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne and fried in oil (preferably peanut, but vegetable or canola oils are fine, too).
This comment is so dumb that it almost doesn’t deserve a response, however…They’re called Tobacco Onions because they resemble shredded tobacco after they’ve been cooked, not because they’ve been smoked or had actual tobacco added to them.
Unless, of course, you happen to have read the article, which clearly you didn’t:
“Menu items will weave in beer and whiskey influences including * * * tobacco for smoke.”
Um. Looking at the menu, tobacco is used in one dish: tobacco onions, a side dish served with the steaks. Think you can probably handle that. Also, tobacco is used in cooking sometimes–it’s not gonna smell like a cigarette or give you emphysema. Yeeesh.
Although barley is a grain and there does seem to be a redundancy in the name of the new stop, I’m guessing the name is designed to distinguish the two groups of whiskies. Grain whiskies are primarily made from grains other than barley and malt whiskies are made from barley.
That’s my 2 cents. 😉
O Boy! Tuna Crudo with Barley…Kohlrabi Quinoa Salad…Vegetable Croquettes with Black Lentils, Chickpeas, Zucchini and Mint Sheep’s Yogurt – love those comfort food classics!
Just like mom used to make
Ummm…is the U sound in CrUdo supposed to rhyme with the U in “rUde” …
or with the U in “mUD” ?
Does make a difference, don’t it?
AND…is the “Cowboy Steak” made from real cowboys? If so, in the interest of gender equality, why not a Cowgirl Steak?
🙂
I’m the one who made the comment about the name, and really I was just being picky. This looks like a decent place – I hope it’ll be good.
Not going to get into the ridiculousness of the tobacco portion of this comment, but have to say once again that the UWS is in desperate need of modern cooking. You want traditional American or classic red-sauce Italian or whatever, there are endless options – any touch of innovation is more than welcome.
Saw this place this passed weekend and it looks GREAT. Although the prices could be a bit more affordable, it still is a very much welcomed design and aesthetic. Hopefully the food taste just as good!
Went last night. Definitely some kinks to work out in the kitchen (they are after all super new), but I will say the hosts and servers were all extremely professional and we felt well taken care of
I can see a couple of things needing to be done in order to get the place up to 100%
1. They are going to need to figure out the seating/banquette/bar configuration. No place to stand (particularly when they’re already this popular) and no proper aisle to get to restroom area. I have a feeling the banquette’s are going to need to come down and smaller tables installed.
2. They need an additional bartender. With a restaurant so focused on drinks/whiskey I think two is not going to be enough.
And in my personal opinion, they should explain the “bacon-infused whiskey” in the bacon manhattan means actual bacon (and bacon fat) and not just the gimmicky bacon flavored alcohol, that we’ve grown so used to on menus. This has the potential to be quite a signature cocktail and I saw many people thoroughly enjoying it, but it is VERY bacony and at $14, might be a pricey risk for some.
I tried that bacon cocktail – it tastes less like bacon than like drinking salty bacon grease.
I took a chance on the bacon Manhattan, and had to send it back. It was disgusting; bacon fat clinging to the glass and floating at the top of a cloudy brown liquid, with clumps of smoked meat sitting at the bottom of the glass.