June 23, 2008

It’s a beautiful day for some neighbors (Deborah Williamson and Bryan Calvert), who — while running an events and catering company — designed a charming restaurant on a tree-lined street.

James, an elegant Modern American dining room opening tomorrow, is an homage to Calvert’s bloodlines (his great granddad was a chef in Harlem).

Pressed tin ceilings, silver bowls of citrus, and a Dutch Lucite chandelier beckon, as does the menu: semolina zucchini blossoms stuffed with peekytoe crab, seared scallops with watercress puree and roasted corn, fava bean ravioli with morel broth and ramps.

Simple desserts round it out: homemade sorbets, ricotta beignets, grilled pound cake. An old-world red helps carry you home.

But you’ll make your way back tomorrow. It’s the neighborly thing.

James, 605 Carlton Avenue, at St. Mark’s Avenue, Prospect Heights
(718-942-4255 or jamesrestaurantny.com).

6/20/08
Grub Street, New York Magazine Blog

Prospect Heights Gets Restaurant Upgrade

James, a seasonal-American restaurant with “old-world European influences,” will open in Prospect Heights on June 24. Owners Deborah Williamson and Bryan Calvert (the latter a Bouley and Union Pacific veteran) found a 100-year-old brownstone on St. Marks and Carlton avenues for their new venture, but don't expect the menu to be aged. Look for crispy sweetbreads with rhubarb-honey glaze, rack of lamb with summer-bean stew, a grass-fed burger with Cotswold cheese, and so forth. The bar will feature the rejiggered classic cocktails that are de rigueur in these retrofitted old spaces. Expect James to be busy from night one. That area of Brooklyn hasn't really had a restaurant quite like this before, with apologies to Flatbush Farm.

 

James, 605 Carlton Ave., at St. Marks Ave., Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; 718-942-4255