{"id":305543,"date":"2026-07-25T16:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305543\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T16:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:45:26","slug":"discover-zoli-a-striking-restaurant-hidden-in-a-brooklyn-art-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305543\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Zoli, A Striking Restaurant Hidden In a Brooklyn Art Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soon after collector\u00a0Lonti\u00a0Ebers inaugurated Amant<\/a>, her East Williamsburg, Brooklyn<\/a>, center for contemporary art<\/a> encompassing galleries, performance spaces, and artist residencies, she recognized something missing from the industrial stretch of\u00a0Maujer\u00a0Street: a pleasant place to gather and eat after the campus caf\u00e9 closed. \u201cIt was clear that with so many other artists and other residents in the neighborhood, opening a restaurant<\/a> would serve the whole community,\u201d recalls Ebers, a MoMA trustee. Fortunately, she\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0need to look far for a chef. During the pandemic, she and her husband became regulars at Houseman, Ned Baldwin<\/a>\u2019s acclaimed yet under-the-radar restaurant in Manhattan\u2019s Hudson Square, and\u00a0developed an appreciation for his cooking. \u201cIt is unpretentious, fresh, and healthy,\u201d Ebers says, \u201cwhich is sympathetic with what we\u2019re creating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Much like the creative experimentation Amant fosters among artists, the restaurant Ebers and Baldwin created, named Zoli<\/a> after her imaginary dog, embraces a similarly adventurous outlook. The 35-seat dining room occupies the ground floor of a former warehouse adjoining the Amant campus, placing art within close reach. In fact, Pierre Huyghe<\/a>\u2019s site-specific artwork\u00a0Satellite\u00a0presides over\u00a0the bar with three massive aquariums, their horseshoe crabs and marine life swimming amid reconstructed debris that nods to nearby Newtown Creek. The French artist\u2019s most ambitious work yet also offers a fitting prelude to Baldwin\u2019s seafood-forward menu.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Rafael Gamo<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern,\"Modern,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Rafael Gamo<\/p>\n

That menu changes weekly, but Baldwin\u2019s longtime passion for fishing on the North Fork of Long Island<\/a> draws him toward seafood<\/a> and oceanic flavors. He developed the offerings alongside chef de cuisine Danny Roberts and executive\u00a0sous chef\u00a0Aimee Li, whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9s include New York\u2019s Altro Paradiso<\/a> and Dame<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a great team, and the three of us are a pure idea factory,\u201d Baldwin says. Local fish figure prominently, particularly in such cold preparations as pickled mackerel, oysters with smoked rhubarb mignonette, and razor clams brightened with preserved lemon and horseradish. More substantial plates range from crispy-skin black sea bass with\u00a0nam\u00a0jim\u00a0and pil-pil to littleneck clams glossed with\u00a0douchi\u00a0butter and Thai basil. Beyond the sea, a wood oven turns out bison strip steak with sauce Robert and spatchcocked roast chicken enriched with kombu jus. Pair them with the classic-leaning beverage program, which features a fennel-infused Gibson and kombucha brewed in-house.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sunlit\"Sunlit<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Rafael Gamo<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Grilled\"Grilled<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA seabass creation at Zoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Gentl + Hyers<\/p>\n

Such adventurous cooking inhabits an equally distinctive setting by GRT Architects<\/a>, which preserved the warehouse\u2019s cavernous proportions while introducing warmer materials that harmonize effortlessly with Amant\u2019s concrete architecture by SO\u2013IL<\/a>. Two-tone cinderblocks, sourced nearby from a manufacturer that produced blocks for Sol LeWitt<\/a>\u2019s sculptures,\u00a0rise\u00a0through the 20-foot-high dining room in a tripartite arrangement: rusticated near the floor, polished at eye level, and fluted above. \u201cWe then worked with local masons to modify these blocks to serve as both light fixtures and ventilation grills,\u201d explains firm co-founder Tal Schori. \u201cThe best projects are the ones where the big decisions guide you to the smallest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the architects supplemented original red steel ceiling beams with monumental mass timber glulam beams that support a new second story. A showpiece polished cherry staircase rises through the dining room to a mezzanine with a 25-seat private dining room\u2014which Baldwin plans to use for dinners with visiting chefs\u2014while a breeze-block wall overlooks Amant\u2019s art-filled courtyard. Downstairs, brown leather banquettes and reclaimed fir tables lend hints of midcentury warmth. Raw burlap lines the soaring ceiling to improve\u00a0acoustics,\u00a0natural cork clads several walls, and a cast-pewter bar introduces a softly gleaming surface among the concrete and timber. (GRT left many materials untreated for longevity and air quality.) Upstairs, a seasonal rooftop terrace surrounded by rewilded plantings offers cocktails and a dedicated menu of snacks against views of Brooklyn\u2019s warehouse roofscape.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Rafael Gamo<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZoli.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Rafael Gamo<\/p>\n

Baldwin\u2019s place within Amant proves especially fitting given his history in the arts<\/a>, which GRT Architects cited as an important guidepost for the interiors<\/a>. Before becoming a chef, Baldwin studied art and philosophy at Bennington College, earned an MFA in sculpture from Yale, and spent years as a visual artist\u2014an experience that still informs the way he approaches cooking. At Zoli, that background places him comfortably within the flourishing creative community Ebers\u00a0seeks\u00a0to foster, while giving artists and neighbors a welcome gathering place that channels Amant\u2019s exploratory spirit in exciting new directions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soon after collector\u00a0Lonti\u00a0Ebers inaugurated Amant, her East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, center for contemporary art encompassing galleries, performance spaces, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[85036,5462,98,100,99,115729,808,115730,85033,9,24,63,821],"class_list":["post-305543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-amant","tag-architecture","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-grt-architects","tag-interiors","tag-lonti-ebers","tag-ned-baldwin","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}