Madre – Greenpoint's neighbourhood table with a MICHELIN nod

At the base of the Franklin Guesthouse, on a stretch of Franklin Street that has turned into Greenpoint's dinner spine, Madre opened its doors on 7 June 2019 as a neighbourhood restaurant with sharper ambitions than its easy manner lets on. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction that sits quietly alongside a menu built for sharing rather than showing off: croquetas and hamachi crudo to start, a whole striped bass or a charred octopus with romesco to follow, cocktails built from scratch at a marble-topped bar. The room seats fifty, is plant-filled and built, by its own account, for lingering rather than turning tables fast. It belongs to Room 11 Hospitality, the small Brooklyn group that also runs the Box House Hotel, the Henry Norman Hotel and the guesthouse upstairs, which makes Madre as much a fixture of the block as a destination in its own right.

01The room and the setting

Madre occupies the ground floor of the Franklin Guesthouse, with its own separate entrance onto Franklin Street. At opening, the design mixed exposed brick, marble counters, brass fittings and mineral-textured walls, with marble and live-wood tables setting the tone against a J-shaped bar.

The restaurant's own description of the room has stayed consistent since: fifty covers, warm light and greenery in every corner, a space meant to belong to the neighbourhood rather than announce itself to it. Pets are welcome on the outdoor patio, and walk-ins are taken at the bar even on nights when the tables are fully booked.

02The chef

Madre opened under executive chef Bryan Noury, whose résumé before Greenpoint included stints as executive chef of Hotel Americano, sous chef at The Nomad Hotel, and executive chef of Café Colette in Brooklyn. A 2020 feature in Forbes credited him with taking dishes that read as ordinary on the page and sharpening them into something more exact, built on what the piece called an internationally shaped palate.

Insider tip

Dinner Wed–Sat, brunch Sat–Sun; G train Greenpoint Ave five minutes away; walk-ins taken at the bar.

At opening, the kitchen worked alongside general manager and sommelier Steven Dougherty, who put together the restaurant's early wine list, and head bartender Jason Kahn, who shaped the original cocktail programme.

03The cooking

The kitchen's own description of itself is a menu that draws from wherever curiosity leads: Latin America, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, West Africa, filtered through whatever the season brings. The current dinner menu leans Spanish and Mediterranean at the start, with croquetas filled with black truffle and manchego alongside a celery root espuma, shrimp aguachile with black sesame praline, and a hamachi crudo finished with blood orange and calabrian chili.

Mains move between a handmade tortelloni with mascarpone, bomb tomatoes and an aged parmesan foam, a whole striped bass over roasted cauliflower purée, and charred Spanish octopus with romesco, chimichurri and pickled cactus. The kitchen runs the same point of view into weekend brunch, where chilaquiles with chorizo-spiked frijoles sit on the same table as brown butter French toast.

04What to order

From the raw bar, the kumamoto oysters with mignonette are a straightforward opener, and the hamachi crudo is the cold dish worth trusting the kitchen with. Among the mains, the lamb rack comes with a fines herbes purée, lamb jus and confit oyster mushrooms, while the octopus appears on both the dinner and brunch menus, dressed differently each time.

At brunch, the wagyu burger, topped with a sunny egg, gruyère and chipotle aioli and served with parmesan fries, is built for anyone who wants lunch rather than a lighter plate, and the cornbread madeleines with whipped honey butter and bee pollen make a good side on either menu.

05Wine and drinks

Madre describes its wine list as compact and chosen with care, built around producers the team loves rather than a trophy case of labels, with bottles priced for drinking rather than showing off. The cocktail list is seasonal and built on quality spirits: the El Sancho mixes mezcal with apricot, Campari, habanero and cinnamon, while Lost in Translation pairs mezcal with cynar, sweet vermouth and mole bitters.

Happy hour runs Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 7pm and all day Sunday, with two-dollar East Coast oysters, a rotating draft from Kings County Brewers Collective in Bushwick, and a nine-dollar draft rosé.

06The neighbourhood

Madre sits a few blocks from the East River waterfront and from McCarren Park, in a part of Greenpoint where Franklin Street has become the default spine for a sit-down dinner. The closest subway is the G train at Greenpoint Avenue, about a five-minute walk, and the NYC Ferry's East River route stops nearby at India Street for anyone arriving across the water.

For visitors staying over, the Franklin Guesthouse sits directly above the restaurant, and Room 11 Hospitality's other Greenpoint properties, the Box House Hotel and the Henry Norman Hotel, are both within walking distance.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.