Surprise party

Bridges, Chinatown

RESTAURANTS • First Person

Every now and then, a new restaurant opens in New York City with little pretension and an unclassifiable style of cooking that can best be summed up as “wildly delicious.” Last year, that restaurant was Foxface Natural. This fall, it’s Bridges.

Opened two weeks ago, the newcomer occupies a surprisingly sleek storefront on Chatham Square in Chinatown, steps from the Chinatown war memorial arch, the brutalist apartment buildings Chatham Towers, and the gaudy Dim Sum A Go Go. It’s an unlikely setting for an unlikely restaurant. 

Running early, I took a seat at the end of the curved wood bar by the windows and surveyed the scene. Frosted glass cubes right out of a 1970s rec room divide the front area — which includes that bar and two bar tables — from the back dining room. I couldn’t help but notice every other arriving guest either embrace the maitre’d or say hello to the bartenders. Given the hospitality industry pedigree of the team here, it makes sense: Chef Sam Lawrence was previously the culinary director of Ignacio Mattos’s local restaurant empire (Lodi, Altro Paradiso, and pioneering restaurant Estela). 

It’s hard not to think of Mattos when trying to classify the cooking at Bridges, which (like Estela) is underserved by labels like “modern” and “European” — if not most labels, as we’d soon find out.

Enjoying the vibes at the bar, we decided to forego our table for dinner. From the list of four starters atop the tight menu, we ordered “Sardines with anchovies and peppers.” That simple description knowingly undersells the sophistication and excellence of the dish, in which a glistening sardine lies atop a roasted pepper (and, somewhere in there, anchovy), all served atop a thin piece of toast. My dining companion and I made eye contact: This meal was on. 

The next three plates all came from the menu’s middle, starting with Kabocha squash and puntarelle with Brabander goat’s milk gouda — an incredibly artful autumnal salad of sorts. Next, the compté tart, styled as a cheesecake (crumbly crust and all), and chanterelle mushrooms draped across — a masterpiece and early contender for Dish of the Fall. Then, smoked eel dumplings with horseradish, a tribute to Chinatown, I’d wager, but really more ravioli than dumpling (and fantastic regardless). 

On reflection, all four dishes tasted so good that, had they brought us a repeat of any, I wouldn’t have complained.

Good thing they didn’t: We wrapped things with a main from the bottom of the menu, roast duck with cabbage and XO sauce, two beautifully cooked pieces of duck with a final surprise: a sausage wrapped inside a lettuce leaf.

It’s those surprises I’ll be back for at Bridges, a very exciting newcomer, right where we never knew we needed it. –Lockhart Steele

→ Bridges (Chinatown) • 9 Chatham Sq • Tues-Sat 530-10p • Reserve.