In an announcement made earlier this week, Brooklyn and the Butcher was named “Best New Restaurant” by the Reader’s Choice poll in Louisville Magazine. Hard work and a desire to succeed pays off! It feels great to be acknowledged by our guest, the only critics that matter to us.
Brooklyn and the Butcher is happy to announce our participation in 502 Restaurant Week!
If you’re new to 502 week, here’s a quick run-down of what to expect.
Restaurants around Louisville and New Albany will be offering a special menu which includes at least 3 courses for a total of $50.20 (502 – see what they did there?)
This is a perfect time to try out something new! Included below is our menu. And it’s delicious, folks.
Last year, we opened our doors to the public on Valentine’s Day. Needless to say, February 14th is a special occasion for us here at Brooklyn and the Butcher.
For most of you, it’s a day about expressing love for someone special in your life. Here, it’s no different.
See, we want to use this day to express our love, too. It’s a love for consistent, professional hospitality. A love for creative, flavor driven foods. A love for unique wines and hand crafted cocktails made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Love for a community who have supported everything we do with unparalleled loyalty and kindness. Words can not express our gratitude. We thank you.
This Valentine’s Day, join us in this rich expression of love as we present a special dinner from the minds of Executive Chef Patrick Carter, Sous Chef Mike Knopf, Bar Manager Jamien Tomlinson, General Manager Brian Keeler, our Proprietors Ian & Nikki Hall, and the entire team at Brooklyn and the Butcher.
Our Valentine’s Day dinner consists of 4 delicious courses, each with their own unique flavors and presentations. For the soups & salads, entrees, and desserts, choose the dish that resonates the most with you, then sit back and relax as our service staff handles the rest. After dinner, spend the rest of the night taking a stroll through historic downtown New Albany. You never know what magical moments you’ll find in this beautiful town.
Click the link below to book your table. You can also click the image below that for our full Valentine’s Day menu. Thanks for reading!
New Albany, IN — (January 18, 2017) – The decision to change a menu is not something that any restaurant takes lightly. There’s the hard work, of course – design and branding updates, online menu’s scattered around the web that will need changing, the countless hours each Chef will spend conceptualizing, testing, and executing each new recipe. There’s also fear and anxiety. Will guests like the new dishes? Do the new plates fit with our original vision? Which dishes do we cut? How do we explain those cuts to our guests?
When I first saw the size of these crab legs, it was actually kind of breathtaking. – Mike Knopf, Sous Chef
In some ways, new menu rollouts can often feel like opening the restaurant for the first time. Training will be needed. Extensive training. New techniques will be learned. New products will be compared, priced, and purchased. No one said it was going to be easy, of course. But for Brooklyn and the Butcher, New Albany’s premiere modern steakhouse, the hard work and perseverance is worth the opportunity to introduce guests to new and exciting culinary experiences.
“If you take fresh product and utilize solid, professional technique, the kind of dishes you can put out can be very exciting,” said Michael Knopf, executive sous chef at Brooklyn and the Butcher. For Knopf, the opportunity to execute new menu items is a chance to step outside the box and be creative. “We’re interested in opening up new doors at the restaurant,” he said, showing me a crate holding over 30 lbs. of fresh Canadian King Crab. “That means new proteins, new techniques, and new price points. When I first saw the size of these crab legs, it was actually kind of breathtaking.”
The excitement doesn’t end in the kitchen of course. Front of house servers find the introduction of new menu items keeps things fresh around the restaurant. “When we switch things up in the back, it keeps us learning and keeps us sharp,” said Amber, a server who has been on the team since the restaurant opened on Valentine’s Day of 2016. “It also shows that we are actively engaged in listening to guests and improving their experience.”
The prep is extensive and hands on, but the difference in quality is unbelievable – Patrick Carter, Executive Chef
Regarding the new menu, most of the buzz around the restaurant seemed to be generating around the addition of five new pasta dishes. There’s the House Ravioli, a “Small Plates” item that will be generously stuffed with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Today it was a delicious mushroom medley and the flavor was outstanding. There’s also the Pappardelle e Pesce, a seafood pasta dish that includes salmon, crab, and shrimp covered in a delicate champagne cream sauce. Spaghetti a la Carbonara and Fettuccine with Sausage and Radicchio also join the updated “Small Plates” menu, as well as my favorite new pasta dish: Ricotta Gnocchi.
“The prep is extensive and hands on, but the difference in quality is unbelievable,” said Executive Chef Patrick Carter, discussing the choice to use hand made pasta in their new dishes. “We’re talking about a very different kind of tenderness. It’s a textural thing that has to be tasted to really get.” The Ricotta Gnocchi is served with truffle, brown butter, wild arugula, and parmigiano reggiano and, like Chef Patrick explained, is a dish bursting with flavor and texture.
Along with the addition of pastas, guests at Brooklyn and the Butcher will find numerous updates to the original opening menu. Crusted Brie has been added and makes an epic starter to any evening. As Chef Mike mentioned earlier, the addition of Alaskan King Crab Legs are an undeniable improvement to an already stacked menu. There’s also two new seasonal salads to choose from (Panzanella and a Roasted Beet Medley), as well as an impressive steak starter called the Beef Duo which features a combination of the Manhattan strip and Tenderloin Filet. This Small Plate gives guests an opportunity to sample two of Brooklyn’s most dominant protein options.
This new menu is about completing the vision. – Ian Hall, owner
While most of the big changes at Brooklyn’s focuses on new Small Plates, guests will be happy to learn that the steak side has been lovingly attended to as well. Along with favorites like the 10 oz. Wagyu Sirloin, 32 oz. Porterhouse, and Brooklyn’s infamous Hand Cut Ribeye, steak fans can rejoice in the addition of a 16 oz. Prime New York Strip and 16 oz. Double Bone-In Porkchop. With these additions to the Big Steaks menu, Brooklyn and the Butcher now offers 9 different beef and protein varieties (not including seafood) and numerous ways to customize each steak.
“This new menu is about completing the vision,” said Ian Hall, owner of both Brooklyn and the Butcher and The Exchange pub + kitchen. Hall thinks the addition of pastas and new Small Plates items creates a menu that now offers something for everyone. “It’s about listening to our guests and building those relationships. We knew our guests loved steaks– that’s a no brainer. But we also knew they wanted something more. Something modern and fresh. The addition of pastas and the revamping of our Small Plates menu takes us into the future of where Brooklyn’s is heading.”
For more information on Brooklyn and the Butcher’s exciting new menu, please visit http://www.brooklynandthebutcher.com
To book a table at Brooklyn and the Butcher, please visit https://www.opentable.com/brooklyn-and-the-butcher-reservations-new-albany?restref=211531&rid=211531
Words & Images by Matt Simpson
From the outside, Brooklyn and the Butcher looks like any other historic brick building. But walk through the entrance, and this new restaurant in an old hotel is all urban luxe. First stop: a check-in desk held over from the hotel days, complete with the original wooden mailbox divider on the wall. The host grabs the key assigned to your table and walks you to a dining space that glows with white marble and high-back booths of soft, gray leather.
A Caprese salad ($9) was first-rate: Juicy red and yellow heirloom tomatoes were cut in wedges, tossed with shredded fresh mozzarella, drizzled with good olive oil and a little sweet balsamic, and garnished with fresh basil leaves.
All the ingredients for a special dining experience have come together at one of New Albany’s newest restaurants — experience, vision, an inspirational setting, and a commitment to excellent service.
Ian Hall, who along with his wife Nikki own the popular The Exchange Pub + Kitchen in downtown New Albany are set to open the new restaurant at 148 E. Market St. on Valentine’s Day. Read more about the concept behind the new restaurant, and the potential spot, by clicking the link below.
The New Albany steakhouse from Ian Hall will be opening on Valentine’s Day – but only for those with reservations. Read the article below to learn more about the Valentine’s Day opening, and when it will be open to the public.
Restaurateur Ian Hall, whose company, Brand Hospitality Group, also owns The Exchange Pub + Kitchen in New Albany, posted on Facebook this week that a 10-month revitalization project is wrapping up at 148 E. Market St. in New Albany, where Brooklyn and the Butcher is planned. Want to know more about the opening on Valentines Day, click the article below to read more.