De Librije is a 3 michelin star restaurant in Zwolle, about an hour and a half train ride away from Amsterdam. Opened in 1993, it’s been awarded 3 michelin stars every year since 2004; it is considered a premier fine dining spot both in the Netherlands and Worldwide. Focusing on modern dutch cuisine, De Librije pairs ingredients sourced from the Netherlands (that are usually sourced elsewhere) with other global ingredients. It uses some “French”/ General European Fine Dining technique, and even some modernist approaches to effect unique flavor pairings and dishes centered around articulating the precise nuances of their underlying components by sometimes contrasting flavors and sometimes...

Atomix is self described as “innovative cuisine” inspired by “Korean traditions and technique”. From my experience, this involves a combination of Korean dishes in a gastronomical modernist form or dishes with some Korean accents which highlight the main ingredient of the dish. Indeed, when contextualized to NYC, Atomix is likely the most innovative cuisine at this level of execution. Granted there are places like Honey Badger and the soon to be closed again Blanca, but those are for another too-long blog post. I’ve been to Atomix now 4 times, 3 of which were for the main menu and 1 was the bar tasting. Atomix isn’t really molecular gastronomy or an archival look at Korean food. It feels very different from the old Jungsik which was also modernized Korean food...

Kono is a yakitori based tasting menu. For those that don't know, yakitori is a Japanese dish that usually consists of skewered chicken grilled using a charcoal grill. Originally they were mainly sold from small, take out only booths/restaurants called yakitori-ya. They are considered a common "street food" though they have become staples of izakayas and even higher end restaurants in Japan. They are especially eaten in Osaka, which is where I first had real yakitori, with different parts of the chicken including the skin, the oyster, the feet, etc. Yakitori has been served in the US and NYC specifically for quite some time now, but the first and perhaps only tasting menu was Torishiin in NYC. I went there in December 2019, and thought it was fantastic. I had heard they declined in quality since then, with chef turnover.

Enter Kono. Chef Atsushi "ATS" Kono is an alum of Torishiin and had opened up his own "Kappo style yakitori" pop up, Chikarashi Isso, in the Bowery hotel almost exactly 2 years ago.