Michelin-Starred Chef Behind Faro Opens Sichuan Restaurant in Bushwick

From the team behind the one-Michelin-starred Faro comes a new noodle-focused Sichuan restaurant General Deb’s. Faro founders Kevin and Debbie Adey open their new restaurant in Bushwick tonight at 24 Irving Ave., near Jefferson Street.

Chef Kevin Adey started cooking his own noodles and dumplings at home and for family meals at the Italian Faro and decided to take his new obsession to the next level by planning a Sichuan restaurant with wife Debbie. Adey is not Chinese and has made a name for himself cooking New American and Italian food, so General Deb’s is a new direction for the chef who says he fell in love with the cuisine.

Thus, General Deb’s serves traditional renditions of Sichuan classics, like dan dan mian, a noodle dish with minced pork, chili, sesame, and peanut; la zi ji, stir-fried chicken with chili peppers; and mapo tofu, braised tofu, pork, and spicy chili sauce. The full menu is below, and the restaurant will sometimes serve off-menu specials like whole fried fish with Sichuan sauce and whole roasted rabbit with a chile-and-fermented-bean-paste sauce.

General Deb’s [Official Photo]

Adey makes his pastas at Faro from house-milled flours, and he says he’ll eventually do the same for the noodles at General Deb’s. For now, though, he’s sourcing the noodles from Sun Noodle, the New Jersey-based company that provides product to many of NYC’s ramen restaurants, like Ivan Ramen, Chuko, and Yuji.

While the food skews classic, the cocktail program goes for a more innovative approach to Sichuan-inspired flavors. There’s a mezcal-based cocktail made with the spicy star of Sichuan cooking, the Sichuan peppercorn. Another rye-based cocktail features chili, peanut, and sesame.

“The neighborhood needed a great Chinese restaurant,” Adey tells Eater NY. He moved to Bushwick in 2009 and after waiting for a Chinese neighborhood restaurant for nine years, he says he decided to just open one himself. An ambitious Sichuan restaurant, Birds of a Feather, opened in Williamsburg in April 2017, but more traditional Chinese restaurants have been slow to open in North Brooklyn.

The dining room here seats 25, with a 10-seat bar for the untraditional drinks. General Deb’s is open Monday through Sunday from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. and currently does not accept reservations.

• Michelin-Starred Chef Behind Faro Tackles Sichuan Food in Next Act [ENY]