101 new NYC restaurants

Northern Spy Food Co.

Just added!

In its current incarnation, comfort food doesn't offer much comfort to the calorie-conscious diner. Emphasizing that simple, down-home cuisine needn't be excessively artery-clogging, Northern Spy co-owner Chris Ronis calls his seasonal menu, "very homey but not heavy—not the fat-fried explosion that gets all the attention." A menu, which Ronis plans to rotate, emphasizes vegetable-centric cooking with dishes like carmelized leeks with pecorino and lemon and Long Island squid with navy beans, romano beans and basil—all prepared by chef-partner Nathan Foote, who's cooked in the seasonal-cuisine mecca of San Francisco for the past 12 years. Besides the all-day counter service menu, the shop is stocked with a wide range of local, artisanal and sustainable pantry items like honey from Upstate, American cheeses, Brooklyn granola and Small World Coffee from New Jersey. If you're looking for an alternative to the cracklings-and-cream comfort food school, this may very well be your place.

Northern Spy Food Co.
511 E. 12th St. between Ave. A and B.
212-228-5100