Restaurant options are lean on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue in Gowanus, even as luxury buildings go up on the street. New to the neighborhood is A&E Supply Co., on the ground floor of a relatively new building, run by Top Chef and Union Square Cafe alum, Adam Harvey, along with his business partner and general manager, Ennio Di Nino.
In addition to the restaurant, there’s a coffee shop, a butcher counter, and a bar in the space that debuted at 548 4th Ave. at 15th Street in November. But it has yet to serve full meals. This will change on Wednesday, when Harvey rolls out a bar food menu that includes a cheeseburger, fried cheese curds, roast beef- and ham sandwiches. In the next few weeks, expect more tailored dishes like beef tartare with chopped shallots and capers, or a chicken nugget gnocchi — a take on fried chicken and mashed potatoes served with a buttermilk cream sauce.
From cheeses to beef to beer, New York farms play a role. “We call it farm to party,” he says. “Farm to table is an exhausted cliche, but we embody all of those things.”
Harvey and Di Nino say their goal is to change according to what new residents want. “People pay a lot of money for rent out here, and there’s not a lot of amenities currently,” Harvey says. “We wanted to bring our years of experience and expertise and pursue the perfection of fine dining, with none of the pretenses.”