The team behind Michelin-starred Oxalis opens a lively wine-bar in Clinton Hill

By Scott Lynch

Chef Nico Russell, beverage director Piper Kristensen, and operations guy Steve Wong have all been around for a while now, with time spent at the likes of fine dining mecca Daniel and pioneering cocktail bar Booker and Dax, but their signature move these days, it seems, is turning their own experimental pop ups into hit Brooklyn restaurants.

Oxalis, the trio’s acclaimed tasting menu place in Crown Heights, began life as a roving food-and-wine show, hitting more than 30 different spots around the city before settling in on Washington Street at the end of 2018. It subsequently earned a Michelin star two years in a row.

Place des Fêtes, their excellent new wine bar in Clinton Hill, has more of a Covid-era origin story: The team first launched the concept in the alley behind Oxalis, back in the early days of the pandemic when dining outside was the only option. (Wong and Russell also sold groceries out the front door, hawked breakfast burritos, and personally delivered meal kits to get Oxalis, and its staff, through those dicey times.)

The casual small plates format of Place des Fêtes had long been appealing to Russell and Wong, and their makeshift effort in the back of Oxalis turned out to be popular with the locals, so they knew they wanted to make the party permanent somewhere. When a space on Greene Avenue, the former home The Finch, became available, they pounced.

“We really love this neighborhood,” Russell tells Brooklyn Magazine. “I live in Clinton Hill, Steve lives next door in Fort Greene, and we’ve always really loved this space specifically. We knew the previous owners well, we’d eaten here a bunch, and when we saw it was on the market we kind of jumped at it.”

Judging by the line down the block last Friday evening—with folks hoping to snag a walk-in seat right as the doors opened for drinks and dinner—their Clinton Hill neighbors are jumping at it too.

Tempesta mortadella, $13; Don Bacarte anchovies, $15; sourdough with Sicilian olive oil, $10 (Scott Lynch)

As at most small-plates spots, there are multiple ways to enjoy Russell’s menu. Find a perch in the bar area, which was popping the other night, and get a glass or two of something plus a couple of shareable snacks, like the chilled chunks of winter flounder jiggling in an intense tomato jelly, or the plate of Don Bocarte anchovies which, among other things, will remind you just how good the best olive oils can be.

Winter flounder in tomato jelly, $17 (Scott Lynch)

Solo diners, or anyone unwilling to share, will want to shoot back the single scallop, which arrives soaking in a sweet, nutty, briny bath, a fluff of shredded horseradish on top.

Scallop on a half shell, $10 (Scott Lynch)

Other seafood options include a plate of salt and vinegar Spanish mackerel, and some plump Bangs Island mussels, served sticky with squid ink. A selection of domestic charcuterie and cheeses are also available each night.

If you’re looking to settle in for a lengthier feast, the two main dining areas are equally pleasant, either the banquette-flanked row of tables up front, or the rustic, unfinished-looking back dining room just past the skylight, featuring a long communal table that a family with young kids had commandeered on the night we were there.

Oxalis regulars will tell you that chef Russell works wonders with vegetables, and the Place des Fêtes menu showcases his latest creations, including a salad of little gems and artichokes, a beet dish laden with bone marrow, some grilled assorted cabbages, and an otherworldly maitake mushroom, housed inside a crackling, tempura-like shell and amped up considerably when dredged through a potent puddle of “black garlic fudge.”

Crispy maitake mushroom with black garlic fudge, $15 (Scott Lynch)

The main courses are stunners. The creamy ricotta cavatelli with white asparagus may be the most obvious crowd pleaser (our table neighbors said they were blown away by all the flavors packed in), but the pork chop is truly a dish for the ages, a pre-sliced, juicy beauty that’s smeared with a chunky dried clam sauce for some extra umami. I’ll be thinking about this dish for a long time.

Berkshire country pork rib, $35 (Scott Lynch)

Another idea: Just come to Place des Fêtes for dessert. The two we ate the other night—a dense financier with dates lurking inside, topped with banana-like pawpaw ice cream; and a small bowl of tangy goat milk ice cream with ribbons of sweet, chewy cajeta and crisp fried parsnips on top—were incredible.

Financier with smoked date and pawpaw, $13 (Scott Lynch)

Kristensen’s cocktail menu is all classics, and the wine list, whether by the glass (around $17 each) or bottle (most between $75 and $100), is tightly curated.

“We just want to put a lot of energy into this space, to serve the community something thoughtful, and high quality, but also make it accessible,” says Russell. “If you can fill that mold, people really respond to that, especially people in Brooklyn. These are real New Yorkers, they know good things, and they love to tell you that they know good things.”

Place des Fêtes is located at 212 Greene Avenue, just west of Grand Avenue, and is currently open on Monday, then Wednesday through Friday, from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday from 4:30 to 10:30 (718-857-0101)