Grindhaus Alum Aaron Taber Taking Over the Kitchen at June Wine Bar in Cobble Hill

A year ago, Aaron Taber was running the tiny kitchen at the quirky Red Hook restaurant Grindhaus, serving rather forward-thinking fare for what owner Erin Norris had intended to be a neighborhood spot. Pete Wells came by and gave the restaurant and Taber's creative vegetable-focused cooking two stars. But, only a few months later, Taber left the restaurant amid a series of nasty disagreements with Norris. Since then, he's been floating around, periodically working as a guest chef at pizzeria Emily and even hanging out with Danny Bowien and other chefs in Mission Chinese's kitchen before the restaurant opened, but mostly, Taber's stayed under the radar.

This week, he'll return to the kitchen as the executive chef at Cobble Hill natural wine bar June. Co-owner Tom Kearney, who also owns Ditmas Park favorite The Farm on Adderley, says the kitchen will be rolling out Taber's new menu items over the next few days. Taber's sticking with the bar's general menu concept: small vegetable-focused plates, which doesn't sound all too dissimilar to what he was serving at Grindhaus. There are some new additions like little neck clams with beans, bottarga, and breadcrumbs, and chiccarones with kohlrabi, anchovy, green juice, and hazelnut.

Check out Taber's the full menu:

  Menu