Hugh Crickmore and Alex Leonard Team Up for Lowlife on the LES

Hugh Crickmore, a one-time partner at Mas (Farmhouse) and former manager/cocktail man for the Andrew Tarlow empire, is opening a new casual fine dining restaurant called Lowlife at 178 Stanton Street on the Lower East Side. Crickmore is teaming up with Alex Leonard, who most recently worked as the chef de cuisine at Blanca. The restaurateur says that the food here will be "aggressively seasonal" and "aggressively local." Lowlife will offer an a la carte menu in the dining room, but the space will also have a 10-seat counter for tasting menus. Crickmore promises that the wine list will include a lot of selections under $100, including natural wines and older bottles. Hugh emphasizes that he's "looking for eclectic producers, not just chasing allocations." The space will be outfitted with yellow pine that Crickmore got from a mill in the Berkshires.

The space is currently under construction, but if everything goes according to plan, Lowlife will open in November or December. And in case you're wondering about that name, it's a reference to both the book by Luc Sante and the album by New Order.