Ex-Blenheim Chef Ryan Tate Teams Up With wd~50 Alum John McCarthy for SparrowFoods Co.

When chef Ryan Tate announced he was leaving the farm-focused Blenheim earlier this year, just nine months after shuttering his Michelin-starred Le Restaurant, word was that he was working on a personal project. He left things pretty mysterious, but today he drops a few more pieces of intel. He and wd~50 alum John McCarthy, who owns the East Asian-inspired seasonal restaurant The Crimson Sparrow in Hudson, NY, have formed SparrowFoods Co. The pair are looking for spaces to open a restaurant and are working on some kitchen and bar consulting gigs at undisclosed locations, but next month, diners will get a first taste of what they're up to.

SparrowFoods will pop-up at Williamsburg's Delaware and Hudson on June 1, and a day later produce a dinner with Joey Scalabrino at Grindhaus in Red Hook. The eight course menu will be inspired by a traditional Japanese kaiseki tasting menu with dishes like ramp and sake lees soup with bonito hush puppies and ramp cole slaw, Wagyu with pickled, smoked egg yolk, asparagus, and brioche, and for dessert, a buckwheat pound cake with citrus semi-freddo, and flowering maple. <strike>Tickets will go on sale tomorrow (check back later for the link).</strike> Dinner is $85, plus a $55 beverage and sake pairing.

Update: Tickets for the June 1 dinner are available here and the June 2 tickets are this way.