Black Tree’s Thanksgiving sandwich.
After a one-night stand in Bushwick, one of our favorite Lower East Side spots, Black Tree, is settling down in Williamsburg. The sandwich shop turned proper nose-to-tail, farm-to-table restaurant is aiming to open an outpost with chef’s counter at 261 Metropolitan Avenue this spring.
Last night, owners Taylor Burton and Macnair Sillick were outside of the Marbleworks Lofts on the corner of Metropolitan and Driggs, fighting the cold as they sought signatures for a liquor license in the corner space that was recently home to the Levi’s Commuter Workspace pop-up. Sillick reminded us that this isn’t their first go-around in Brooklyn. “We started as a pop-up in Crown Heights [at the Crown Inn, in 2012],” he said. “Then [a year later] we went to the Lower East Side. We’re trying to come back bigger and better.”
By bigger and better, he means the space will be equipped with an open kitchen where chef Sandy Dee Hall will do his thing. There’ll also be a reservations-only chef’s table where, three to four nights a week, parties of eight to 15 can enjoy a 13-to-18-course menu of small plates based on the animal of the week. “We just did a run-through on the Lower East Side,” Sillick said. “The party got a whole pig dedicated to that table and they got a little piece of every part of the pig, pretty much — it was a really awesome tasting menu.”
Those who don’t want to go all-in will be able to walk in (or, hopefully, grab a sidewalk seat) for a la carte service, or saddle up to the takeout window for their morning coffee.
Black Tree prides itself on sourcing its ingredients — and even its booze — locally, and it’s doing the same with its decor by enlisting vintage furnishers Brooklyn Reclamation, just down the street.
