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Sunset Park’s Industry City is a one-stop shop. The former 19th-century warehouse and manufacturing center is now home to more than 650 companies, including manufacturing, studio, retail and then some. Industry City also houses various food markets and stalls (including a sandwich that we dream about). The only thing missing at this waterfront complex was a fine-dining destination. That’s all changed as two alums of one of Brooklyn’s most iconic spots have now opened a new restaurant.
As of March 19, Industry City welcomed Confidant. Behind it are chefs Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman. The two chefs met on the line at Roberta’s back in 2018, Kelley working up to chef de cuisine, while Grossman made his way to executive sous chef. Together, their combined cheffing resume includes time at Aska and Per Se (for Kelley) and Gage & Tollner and Foul Witch (for Grossman). At Confidant, they bring their shared experiences under one roof with a restaurant that follows the seasons with an eye toward sustainability thanks to their to dry-aging program.
A growing trend among restaurants, Confidant relies on a dry-aging program to preserve and serve whole animals. Just take a look at the many ways they serve their big eye tuna. In one dish, the fish becomes charcuterie, more specifically their Tuna Prosciutto, by salting, curing and dry-aging the tuna for two months. In another, the belly is dry-aged and sliced up for their Tuna Belly Crudo, plated with Seckel pear and radishes, and topped with bottarga. It's not only fish that gets the dry-aged treatment, as the Whole Crown of Duck is aged for two weeks while the steak sourced from fellow Industry City tenant, Ends Meats, is aged for 70 days.
While dry aged protein is a focus here, vegetable-forward dishes also find their place on the menu, like the Little Gem Salad with a black sesame and burnt leek spread and the charred, slow-cooked Celery Root drizzled with a maple bourbon glaze made with Fort Hamilton Distillery bourbon.
As for libations, Cody Pruitt of West Village French bistro Libertine has curated an all-natural wine list, 60 bottles deep. There's also a lineup of cocktails, like the Manhattan with cacao and kofi, and the rum-based Last of the Mojitos with plum kernel liqueur, chartreuse elixir and shiso. Pruitt also nods to Kelley’s hometown of Telluride, Colorado, by whipping up the ski town’s favorite cocktail: The Flatiner. Confidant’s cocktail, The Flatliner Espresso Martini, uses Hamilton Distillery vodka, cold brew and cacao to create a riff off of the espresso martini and the mudslide.
Will Confidant become a new dining destination in Sunset Park? With the team at hand, we are pretty confident it will be.