Greenpoint’s Cherry Point Pays Homage to Its Butcher Shop Past
As is the case with many new Greenpoint establishments, Cherry Point is located in a vacated Polish storefront. Which is why you’ll find vintage tiles, white enamel light fixtures and wainscoting on the walls, not to mention antique books, retro groceries and a stray (ceramic) pigeon stacked near the ceiling; elements that co-owner Vincent Mazeau—also an art director and set designer—has purposefully recreated or maintained. Even the cocktail program (devised by The Finch’s Garrett Smith) is a studied throwback to a bygone era, favoring nostalgic tipples with present-day tweaks; think a prismatic Swizzle layered with rhum agricole and Velvet Felernum, an Old Fashioned made with rye and root beer bitters, and a signature Sour comprised of scotch and red wine.
But the spot’s 40-year reign as a butcher shop is chiefly honored through the menu, fittingly executed by Julian Calcott, who is a former executive sous chef at the meat-fixated Spotted Pig. As part of a dedicated whole animal program, bits and pieces are funneled into an elaborate, ever-changing lineup of charcuterie, which not only features meat (pork and prune paté, chicken and ramp boudin blanc) but a revolving roster of fish, such as smoked mackerel, pickled clams, and fans of beet-cured arctic char that are served with shaved lemon, brown butter and miniature saltines.
Small plates and main courses supplement all of this, and showcase larger cuts like pork chops with black garlic and treviso, seared pouisson with potatoes and crème fraiche, skate wing with morels and favas (Calcott also cures the cheeks) and of course, a killer burger— two grass-fed, pickle-topped Happy Valley patties, dripping with housemade slices of “American” cheese. Then again, it’s hard to ignore the offer of a good old Polish sausage, anointed with pungent ribbons of sauerkraut and swaths of grainy mustard.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
664 Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint
All photos by Louise Palmberg.