The downtown East River waterfront finally has a good place to eat. Industry Kitchen, a sleek, “eco-friendly” structure under the FDR Drive, can seat up to 300 indoors and out and serves affordable, well-done fare.
There’s still a way to go to catch up with thousands of seats in Battery Park City along the Hudson, from a half-dozen venues at Brookfield Place to the new Pier A Harbor House, but this is a helluva start.
Industry Kitchen, born of a city effort to uplift the South Street scene, was designed by SHoP Architects, the team behind gorgeous, nearby Pier 15. The low-slung, gently angled structure fits as snugly beneath the elevated FDR as Renzo Piano’s Santina does under the High Line. The dining room, bar and reclaimed wood and raw concrete patio look out onto the Brooklyn Bridge, King County’s changing skyline and a surprising number of ferries on the river.
You expect tourists and awful service in a postcard location like this. But most customers I saw on several visits were local, including many from nearby office buildings. And, even on a gray day, the floor crew put on a sunny face.
Bare-bones seating, including picnic tables, cues the simple, well-wrought American menu dominated by wood-fired entrees and pizza. Cedar-plank Atlantic salmon was a phenomenal buy for $22, with candy-crackling skin and a ginger-and-rosemary-tinted summer medley of barley, edamame and tiny tomatoes.
Pizza, from executive chef Marco Arnold’s open kitchen, arrived with crusts firm and crisp, toppings fresh. I did a double take when the classic margherita, which I expected to be eensy for $14, turned out to be 14 inches wide — a price-to-diameter ratio that’s hard to beat.
Everything can be washed down easily with draft beers, killer cocktails and cheap, decent wines that top out at $42 for a bottle.
Industry Kitchen reflects a couple of minor miracles. Perhaps the biggest one is that builders had to overcome damage caused by Superstorm Sandy, which delayed construction by more than a year.
And it’s run by Merchants Hospitality Group — the outfit behind stinkers such as “Beijing-style” Philippe.
But Industry Kitchen is so right for its time and place, I promise not to ridicule Philippe’s limp noodles for at least one year, as long as they don’t sneak up on South Street.