It’s been decades since the East Village was an edgy New York City enclave of punk rock, poetry and artists like Andy Warhol. Today it’s more of a New York University annex, where the well-heeled can enjoy Michelin-starred restaurants, buzzy bars and stylish hotels. The neighborhood’s upward mobility is most obvious from Second Avenue to Avenue B, but even Avenue C now boasts hip spots such as Ayat, Bobwhite Counter and Joyface.
One block east, though, Avenue D tells a different story: bodegas, empty storefronts and public housing. It’s here that food journalist and cookbook author Mark Bittman recently opened his first iteration of Community Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant that, as he puts it, “does everything right.”