Owner Nicholas Morgenstern opened GG’s (formerly Goat Town) with a fresh concept and a new partner: executive chef Bobby Hellen, best known for The Cannibal and for his whole-animal approach to cooking. Further partners behind this new venture are general manager Emily Schumacher and beverage director Gabriel Richter. They gave the space on 5th Street a makeover, creating a clean, natural look with old wooden tables, crisp white walls, and deep green wooden benches, chairs, and shutters. The green of the interior décor is a nod to the lush back garden, which is even bigger than the restaurant and offers guests a view of the rare vegetation going into their food.
The salad of shaved heirloom carrots, onions, radicchios, squash, and garbanzo beans that the Manhattan Sideways team shared exemplified the variety of the garden and the freshness of the just-picked ingredients found throughout the menu. The Whole Wheat “Lasagna,” made with roasted mushrooms, pesto and mozzarella, was terrific, but what really stood out at GG’s was the pizza. The 1986 – with spicy soppressata, fennel agro dolce, pickled peppers and arugula – made excellent use of Chef Bobby’s meat expertise and garden-picked vegetables. We also sampled GG’s signature Grandma’s Pie. One side of the thick, tasty square crust was vegetarian, while the other was topped with pepperoni, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and oregano.
As we sat by a large open window in the front of GG’s, eating and sipping some of our server Allison’s favorites from the cocktail menu – The Good Life and Long Island Sour – Chef Bobby took time out from the kitchen to check in on us. He told us that the team behind GG’s is both proud and hugely satisfied to be getting back to their roots, both literally in the garden, and figuratively with the simple, satisfying menu that focuses on New York pizza. “It is nice,” said Chef Bobby, “to feel like we’re doing good things with the garden and the use of the meat, but also to be doing something we like. It feels right.”
