EGN NEWS DESK
As would-be diners approached a nondescript door on a placid block in Greenwich Village on Wednesday night time, they have been stopped quick by a tall, lean man sporting a black fur hat and pink carnation boutonniere. He pressed stickers over the lenses of their telephones. No images was allowed, he insisted.
As they complied and disappeared by means of the door, the block fell silent once more.
Inside, silence was scarce. It was the opening night time of Frog Club, the primary restaurant involving the chef Liz Johnson because the very public implosion of her marriage to Will Aghajanian, with whom she ran the acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant Horses.
Occupying the historic area previously dwelling to Chumley’s, Frog Club has been veiled in secrecy. Only a 12-minute stiltedly lo-fi YouTube video introduced its official opening, and a sparse web site supplied simply an e mail handle for requesting reservations. With Ms. Johnson and Mr. Aghajanian in the midst of a contentious divorce, it’s even unclear who owns the restaurant.
Mr. Aghajanian, 32, informed The New York Times, in an Instagram direct message, that the challenge is “in authorized limbo at the moment,” and that “Frog membership is an idea I created and designed.”
Asked Wednesday how she felt concerning the restaurant, Ms. Johnson, 33, surveyed the area and mentioned merely, “It’s all mine.”
Horses was a essential darling and celeb favourite till The Los Angeles Times printed an article on the bitter breakup on the Sunset Boulevard restaurant. A New York Times article from May reported that Ms. Johnson had accused Mr. Aghajanian of assaulting her, visiting prostitutes and torturing a variety of the couple’s pet kittens to demise. He denied these allegations and accused her of threatening to kill him and intentionally burning him with kitchen implements.
The divorce proceedings are ongoing, however regardless of the scandal, a current report steered that Horses stays as busy as ever.
Allison Otis, 31, a pupil who lives in New York City and has been to Horses twice was much less involved about that restaurant’s previous than each it and Frog Club’s meals.
“Obviously the story was a bit of wild, however the meals’s all the time been good. It stands by itself for certain,” she mentioned. “People love scandal, so I think about there are individuals who may go simply to see, however what’s going to maintain the restaurant would be the high quality of the scene and the hospitality.”
On Wednesday, Ms. Johnson moved calmly by means of the frenetic room in crisp whites accented with a inexperienced frog-patterned neckerchief, serving hamburgers on housemade English muffins and slices of banana chiffon pie.
Before their messy break up, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Aghajanian had amassed practically a decade’s price of reward for his or her deft, ingenious dishes at Horses, the Catbird Seat in Nashville and earlier than that Mimi in Greenwich Village.
“It’s humorous to say it this late within the sport, however I’m determining what my meals is,” Ms. Johnson mentioned.
In entrance of a hearth throughout the room, a girl crooned right into a microphone. A wraparound fever dream of a mural depicting carousing frogs in Prohibition-era cocktail apparel ran the size of each eating rooms. Hundreds of plates have been suspended from the ceiling with vaguely sinister chains, whereas an vintage clock and several other framed artistic endeavors additionally loomed overhead, as if in an exploded museum.
Ms. Johnson answered a reporter’s questions concerning the corkscrew-shaped “sidewinder fries” (they’re a specialty merchandise Ms. Johnson buys frozen), the mustard crème fraîche sauce on the crispy roast rooster (the identical one she served at Mimi), and stopped a minimum of as soon as to pose for {a photograph} with Josh Beckerman, a social-media character higher often called the Foodie Magician.
Beyond a number of feedback, Ms. Johnson declined to talk for this text, or allow any photographs.
With its antic amphibian murals by the illustrator Normandie Syken, and its buttery lobster pierogies, the restaurant teeters between haute speakeasy and fun-house spectacle.
Ximena Lascurain, 29, a journey guide who lives close by, was intrigued. She had snagged a reservation after strolling by and peeking in. “I’m right here as a result of I used to be curious,” she mentioned. “More concerning the area than concerning the proprietor.”
Maybe, however the menu did supply a “Kiss the Chef” possibility for $1,000. And by 10:30 p.m., a server reported {that a} male diner had purchased the primary kiss — on the cheek — with Ms. Johnson.
“It was candy,” the server mentioned. “She was blushing.” Also on the menu — the again of the dessert menu — was a mini-manifesto, with the final line studying: “Frog Club is the New Yorkiest room in New York and it’ll depart you questioning, what occurred at 86 Bedford final night time?”
