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Things You Find at Nishi: Footnotes Galore

It's the Infinite Jest of Korean-Italian menus (except it's not very long).

[Nishi photo by Gabriel Stabile]
[Nishi photo by Gabriel Stabile]

New York has a bad case of NISHI FEVER, and the only cure is MORE BAGNA CAUDA. David Chang and the Momofuku team surprised the dining world last week with the stealth opening of their Chelsea restaurant, and lines immediately started forming around the block. The menu has Italian and Korean influences, an M.C. Escher print is hanging on the wall, the restaurant has a no-tipping policy, and everyone's eating bundt cake for dessert. Sietsema recommends the pork and the ceci e pepe. In his first look, Eater's critic also notes that the "menu is extensively and humorously footnoted. " It's not available on the official Nishi homepage yet, but here's a peek at those funny footnotes, via Instagram:

A photo posted by Ellen (@ellenost) on

As is the case with every Momofuku opening, Chang & Co. are trying a few new things with the debut of Momofuku Nishi. Most of these are notes on the influences behind the dishes, but one of them is an instruction on how to eat the food and another is a piece of info about the ingredients. As you may recall, the Momo team played with the conventions of the wine list at Momofuku Ko, and now they're experimenting with the way the food menu is written. Will other restaurants adopt similarly weird footnotes in 2016? Only time will tell.

In other Nishi news: the bar is serving boozy slushies including an "amaro affogato." And last night, Laurent Gras and Kate Krader popped in:

A photo posted by Jennifer Leuzzi (@mmesnack) on

Momofuku Nishi

232 8th Avenue, Manhattan, NY 10011 (646) 518-1919 Visit Website

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