A FEW HOURS before service at Ilis, a newly opened restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, two-dozen or so young cooks in crisp black-linen shirts and olive-drab aprons stand around tables and islands, deep in prep.
In one corner of the former warehouse, two of them carefully seal large surf-clam shells with beeswax and bind them with twine.
Soon these will be filled with a combination of clam juice, clarified tomato juice and dashi, to be slurped by diners paying $295 for a 12-course dinner.
At a worktable, dozens of defeathered Khaki Campbell ducks await 21 days of dry aging.
It may sound like the standard set-up for a high-end restaurant of a particular Nordic bent, but it isn’t.
Locations:
Ilis, Greenpoint , Brooklyn