The Pete Wells review of Olmsted, where farm to table means animals in the backyard
3 stars for chef Greg Baxtrom's ambitious, approachable Prospect Heights stunner
Go here for chef Greg Baxtrom’s refreshingly whimsical, ambitious cooking—a welcome reprieve from the rustic chicken-under-a-brick approach this borough is famous for. His dishes reflect his impressive résumé (Alinea, Blue Hill at Stone Barns), and yet Baxtrom offers them at surprisingly reasonable prices.
It’s a slam-dunk idea—the finesse of fine dining with an upstart energy that delivers more good stuff to more people. In the end, Baxtrom’s cooking dazzled us. But it was his spread-the-love mentality that won us over for good.
Chef Greg Baxtrom and farmer Ian Rothman are bringing the “farm to table” concept to Prospect Heights, but for them, the distance between source and dish is much shorter.
Last year, chef Greg Baxtrom took one of the best resumes around (Alinea, Per Se, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Atera) and funneled his hard-earned technique and experience into Brooklyn’s Olmsted restaurant, a neighborhood gem that quickly rose to prominence as a destination restaurant. On the heels of Olmsted’s inclusion on Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list, Greg takes us through his young life and career and shares his recent experience opening his first restaurant as chef-owner. A rare and unusually open conversation about this crucial transitional time in a chef’s career.
The chef wants to use his fine dining chops to make refined food affordable.
