Q & A with Ken Friedman

What compels a guy in the music industry to open his own restaurant?  Ken Friedman couldn't find a restaurant where he could wear jeans and still eat great food.  So he got a few friends to invest and opened one himself.   By friends, I mean Jay-Z, Fatboy Slim and Michael Stipes.   That's who your friends are when you work in the music industry for 25 years, including at Arista Records with Clive Davis.  The Spotted Pig  literally became a celebrity hangout overnight.  More importantly, it sparked a gastropub trend and paved the way for upscale British pub food.  It was just the beginning of Ken Friedman & chef April Bloomfield's relationship. 

The two went on to open The John Dory, which closed rather suddenly this past weekend.  Friedman explains: "We didn't feel we could ever make it work at that address.  We are used to lots of people wandering by or stopping in for a drink... No one lives on that stretch of Tenth Avenue and we needed a bar scene."  He assures us The John Dory will reopen in a lively neighborhood with a big bar scene and no reservations policy.  He's sworn off reservations after The John Dory and he's not a big fan of El Bulli in Spain either.  

In the short time he's been in the industry,  Friedman's had a lot of successes including The Spotted Pig, The Rusty Knot, and Locanda Verde.   He managed to erase the subpar memory of Ago in Tribeca with his admirable redesign of Locanda Verde in the Tribeca Hotel.   Next up for Friedman and Bloomfield is the The Breslin located in the Ace Hotel and scheduled to open in October.  What we can expect?  Booths with curtains and call buttons and a big round table.  They'll also be various dining areas serving British-bent fare, sausages, terrines and Friedman's favorite, a lamb burger.  

Single/Married/Divorced?
 Still single I'm afraid. .

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A visual artist of some sort then later a musician. 
 
What was your first job ever in food?  What did you learn?
I was a waiter in high school.  I learned that I wasn't very good at it because I have a terrible memory, but I got a taste of now nice it is being part of a team, working with people who have each other's backs.
 
You worked in the music industry for twenty years, including time spent as an executive at Arista Records.  What was the impetus behind your career change to the restaurant business.
 I worked at Arista, London records and Trent Reznors label, Nothing Records.  I was in charge there.   I changed careers because I turned forty and realized that I didn't really like music anymore because it had been my job for years to constantly listen.  I'd felt and been told for years that I might be good at opening a bar or club or restaurant.  I've always loved Public Assembly.  I spent twenty years in clubs, restaurants and bars are for grown ups what clubs are for kids.  Now I love music again, but hate restaurants (just kidding.) It's just tough to go to restaurants now because it's hard to relax.  I'm always comparing mine to the one I'm in.  Usually I am jealous of them.  Or really disappointed.
 
No one in the media saw the closing of John Dory coming.  When did you make the decision?    The restaurant received rave reviews, especially from me.  Why didn’t it survive? Was it the location and are you really planning to reopen somewhere else?
We decided that we loved and believed in the concept of The John Dory, but didn't feel we would ever make it work at that address.  We are used to lots of people wandering by, stopping in for a drink and perhaps staying to eat.  The Pig is a neighborhood joint.  Half the people there on a given night are from nearby in the village.  We have hundreds of regulars for whom the Pig is their local joint.  With the Dory, we discovered that no one lives on that stretch of Tenth Avenue yet.  It will be a good location someday, but for us, it just didn't work.  We needed a bar scene.  People expect one at our places.  Because we opened as a sort of fancy seafood restaurant, and because it only had 46 seats, which all got booked up in a few days, all the bar seats were taken by people eating.  The first few weeks people came by for a drink -- usually by cab because everyone came from somplace else -- but discovered that there weren't any seats available to just drink.  When you allow a customer to reseve a barstool, it isn't really a bar any longer.  That is totally my fault. 

We will open a new Jon Dory in a location where there are people all around.  That's the most important requirement.  I can't tell you where yet because the deal isn't done.  We don't want to rush into any location because we can't afford to make a mistake again and we have two restaurants -- The Breslin  Bar & Dining room and the Lobby restaurant -- and another bar about to open in the Ace hotel.  We're really excited about the Ace.  It's just the coolest hotel brand.  Also, we decided to close down the Dory when we did because we were just about to start hiring kitchen and front of the house staff for our Ace Hotel places.   It would've hurt even more if we'd hired 200 new people for the Ace/Breslin, then had to let go all the Dory staffers.  We had an awesome staff at the Dory.  This way we've offered 100% of the Dory people jobs at the Ace.  Everyone of April's kitchen staff is coming over with us.  That's pretty cool.  

You’ve had a lot of exciting projects this year:  First, Locanda Verde and The Breslin is gearing up to open this fall.  How is it different from your past ventures and what can we expect other than a no-reservation policy?  What’s on the menu?
Hopefully it'll feel a lot like the Pig and a bit like Locanda and The Rusty Knot.  There are many elements to our Ace places.  The Breslin will be gastropub-like.  The lobby is a hotel lobby, but a really comfortable one, with music and lighting that makes it feel like a relaxing loynge.  April & Peter Cho -- our superstar head chef, who was the chef de cuisine at the Pig for ages -- will serve small plates and wooden platters with terrines and slices meats in the lobby.  It's stuff you can nibble on while you are sitting on a couch or at a communal table.  It's a hotel so lots of hotel guests will be there to dine solo.  There will be a lot of bar stools in both restaurants.  There will be booths with curtains that close.  It's a hotel so lots of hotel guests will be there to dine solo.  There will be a lot of bar stools in both restaurants.  There will be booths with curtains that close.  We'll have a button to summon a server, like on an airplane, a light will go on outside the booth to get his/her attention.  There will be a "Breslin Round Table" for large parties, an idea which we obviously borrowed.

You and April Bloomfield are essentially married without the benefits.  You have an extremely close working relationship.  How did you first meet and what keep your restaurant partnership strong?
We met when it was just me and my pal Mario Batali helping me to find a chef for my idea of a bar with great restaurant quality food.  I'd met Jamie Oliver at a music pal's wedding in England.  Jamie came to New York and Mario and I took him out to try to convince him to move here to be my chef.  He laughed at us, but told us about April.  She was cooking at The River Cafe in London, which is one of my favorite restaurants on earth.  Jamie told us that she was mildly obsessed with America, specifically Berkeley and Chez Panisse and Alice Waters.  He said that maybe we could talk her into spending a few years in New York before heading West. 

Mario suggested we fly her over to meet us.  He said to put her up at the W Union Square Hotel on a day that the Farmer's Market was on.  We picked her up at the hotel and Mario took her to meet all his farmers, cheese makers, fish and meat people in the market.  We took her to lunch at Union Square Cafe, that night we took her to Babbo, Otto, Lupa, 'Ino, then some dive bars in the East Village.  She was blown away and so full and so hung over the next morning.  We bonded. She never cooked for us.  When I asked Mario how he knew she was any good, he said, "I could tell as soon as I saw all the burns on her arms.  She has no fear.  That's crucial." 
 
 You came out of the game with a home run at the Spotted Pig.  How has the restaurant evolved over the years?  Is it still a two-hour wait for prime time hours?
Our staff at the Pig is a family, like nowhere else I've seen or heard of.  We have loyal, regular customers who we treat like royalty because to us they are.  The Pig is a great example of appreciating regulars because long after the hipness factor wears off, they are the ones who keep coming, whether people are talking or writing about how cool we are or not.  The waits vary, but the Pig is a great fun place to wait and The West Village is the best neighborhood to wander around trying places til we call you to say your table is ready. We give maps to customers who are waiting, so they can walk to our favorite places, an example would be the bar at Wallse & Kurt's new wine bar next door, Employees Only, White Horse Tavern, the Other Room, The basement bar at Paris Commune, Barbuto, and of course, the The Rusty Knot.

You're American and yet all of your restaurants have a British-bent to them.  What draws you to British cooking?
I love all things British.  It comes from my obsession with British rock & roll as a kid.  I love pub culture, the idea that people have been gathering in a room every night to drink, eat, exchange information for hundreds of years. 

I was born & raised in California where nothing is old, like that line from LA Story where Steve Martin is giving that British gal a tour of LA.  He says, "some of these buildings are nearly twenty years old!"  That was my upbringing.  When I first got to New York then England and I was gobsmacked by how old the buildings and pubs are.

What food trends do you most embrace?  
Inexpensive, casual, small plates, and bar snacks.  That's how I like to eat. Dozens of little bursts of different flavors and textures. 

I can usually live without entrees.  Just give me lots and lots of appetizers.

Which trends do you wish would just die already? 
Chefs are artists. They create dishes that refer to and comment about what's been done before them, like painters or song writers.  Whether a dish works for me or not, a chef has the right to express her or himself.  What works for me may not work for others.  I dined with a bunch of foodies at El Bulli last month.  I was somewhat appalled by it, but the people I was with were blown away. Who am I to ruin their experience? 

What is your favorite dish on the menu at The Spotted Pig and the soon-to-open Breslin? 
Ever few months I have a fave dish of April's.  Lately, it's her Cubano. It's just extraordinary!  I'm most looking forward to the homemade sausages at The Breslin and the lamb burger and the meat pies in the lobby.

Tell me the hardest part about opening and maintaining a restaurant.  What are some policies/tools you can't live without?    
It's easy having a restaurant with April because her food is always great, so people come back again and again. The hardest part is when you are in the wrong neighborhood or its too small or both. I can live without ever taking reservations again.  I'm sure we will have to some day, but we aren't any good at it yet.  Perhaps because, as a customer, I never got into the habit of making them.  That's why I ended up at the bar so often.

You're a big fan of the North Fork.  Any plans to open up an eatery out there? 
I would love to open a country pub out there.  I love country pubs.

Will you ever settle down?
I hope so.

Anything else on the horizon for you? Spill the beans...
I'm going to start working out at a gym any day now.   Taavo rings my doorbell every morning to take me to his gym, as I asked him to do, but he thinks the buzzer's broken and that's why I don't hear it.  Don't tell him it actually works and the reason I don't answer is that I'm just lazy.  When I go to the beach I hope for rain, so I don't have to take my shirt off in front of people.  It's clearly time for situps.

The Spotted Pig
Address:
Phone: (212)620-0393

The Breslin
Address: 1186 Broadway, btwn. 28th & 29th Sts.
Phone: (212)685-9600