Kisa Cured My Restaurant Fatigue
Thanksgiving hangovers, Korean food, and every New York opening you need to know about.
I am in a cooking and baking coma. After what felt like a months-long slump of being uninterested in putting together a meal other than broccoli and sushi rice, I finally pulled myself out of the trenches. My brother, a chef, and my sister, a baker, were BOTH unavailable for our family’s Thanksgiving, a completely unheard of circumstance given that Thanksgiving is the Weiss family’s Superbowl. Each year, my brother is the coach and the quarterback, and the rest of us fill in for sous duties as necessary. For the first time in my life, I had full reign over the kitchen for Thanksgiving… and it was awesome.
The menu, which somehow kept growing, consisted of:
Turkey (Dad), Stuffing, Gravy, Cranberry (Mom)
Gruyere gougeres, Salted maple butter milk buns, Chive Mashed Potatoes,
fall salad, Rainbow carrots with preserved lemon butter and honeycomb ( a la Prune), Braised leeks with pecorino, Tarragon mustard green beans with fried shallots, Caramel apple galette, Apple tarte tatin, Cold carrot cake, and Rosemary brown butter sugar cookies (Olivia)
And then the following day, I made two more loaves of milk bread and used the rest of the rough puff and the braised leeks to make a turkey pot pie. The milk bread turned into the vehicle for leftover turkey sandwiches. I couldn’t be stopped.
The only adjustments I should have made were the buns were slightly overproofed, the first 30 gougeres needed 2 more minutes in the oven, the leeks needed to be served hotter, and the puff on the turkey pot pie heated up too quickly and didn’t rise properly. Key takeaways: everything was delicious, my parents need a double oven, and I need an interim of kitchen laziness before I get really sucked into holiday cookie season. I just stocked up for a week of baked potatoes and pre-made soup.
In other news, I’ve been so exhausted of dining out and spending money and making reservations and 8pm dinners when it’s already been pitch black for several hours. For my wallet, this has been a positive. For this newsletter…it has been uninspiring. BUT!! When the lovely Gemma told me she had a reservation at Kisa, my new-restaurant-butterflies returned. Today you get a little Kisa write up and the very first Table Talk, as promised. Paid subscribers will have access to regularly scheduled updates of recent restaurant, bakery, and bar openings around New York, as well as forthcoming openings to keep an eye on. There’s a lot to keep track of, so this will be an effort to consolidate food news and deliver it to your inbox.
In the coming weeks, there will be more on holiday cookies, key winter recs, and my favorite meals of 2024…stay tuned.
Kisa
Just after opening, Kisa had received praise from the Michelin Guide and The New Yorker, and months later was named a “Best New Restaurant” by The Infatuation and Eater. Not particularly taken by these accolades, I was fearful that Kisa might fall flat. From the folks at C as in Charlie (which I didn’t love), Kisa has become yet another sought after table. Despite my uncertainty, I was really excited to have the chance to visit. I was only 6 ish months late to the party.
I haven’t opted into a dinner past 8:00pm in quite some time, so the stakes felt particularly high given that our reservation was at 9:30pm on a rainy Saturday. We persisted. Gemma and I saw the dinner as an aptly timed primer for a longer evening out, though we did consider cancelling for an earlier meal. I am so glad we didn’t.
At 9:30 on the dot (I ran for a train to ensure promptness), I stepped out of the subway and peeked around the corner to ensure I was at the right place. Kisa is nondescript in a great way, blending in with a cool nonchalance, overlooking the 2nd Ave F on a busy downtown intersection. Past delicate lace curtains, the dining room was filled with two tops inches from one another, all so crowded with food you’d be wary to walk through with a particularly large tote bag. Wood tables and chairs with mismatched cushions, terracotta linoleum tiles lined walls with picture frames, old fans, and tiny televisions provided a bit of nostalgia and ease. It felt just right, though perhaps a bit darker and moodier than I imagined given its diner pedigree.
Gemma and I began catching up over a bottle of soju and cans of Terra (soju bombs were a strong start) and our very kind waiter explained the menu to us—the only dinner item is Baek Ban, an assortment of seven Banchan with four options for a main dish, served with soup and rice. Large portions from a straight-forward menu are delivered to tables promptly to hold true to its namesake as a Korean taxi driver diner, a clientele for whom time is of the essence. Gemma ordered the spicy squid, and I opted for the Sanchae Bibimbap, a bowl of matchsticked vegetables on a bed of rice with a healthy dose of gochujang. We each got a side of Ssam—romaine and perilla leaves with cucumber spears to accompany each bite.
The food arrived quickly, as anticipated, and we had to perform some serious tetris to fit two enormous silver trays alongside soup and rice bowls, cups with Ssam, our bottle of Soju, beers, and shot glasses on our little table. I was overwhelmed by the spread, all for $32, and was thrilled with every bite. My favorites: Tri-color Jeon, a fishcake, scallion, picked radish, and imitation crab fritter, and the obscenely fresh and tasty soy marinated salmon. I even loved the beef and radish soup, despite largely avoiding beef these days. My chopsticks darted between bowls, revisiting each dish with new excitement as I rotated through our impressive spread. To think I hadn’t had Korean food in this format before is upsetting—I loved everything about it. I left so full, appropriately drunk, and with a black bean latte from a hot drink vending machine in hand.
Kisa was a reminder of how exciting it is when restaurants can bring fun, casual, and utterly delicious food to a city that seems to have those bases already covered, though less frequently all under one roof. It’s popular for good reason. Best for catching up with new friends, trying something new with old ones, and a late-night pit-stop.
And now, for all the latest updates, new openings, and pending restaurant news I have collected the last month…