Belcourt

(Credit: Jori Klein)

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It’s a long way from a Tuscan farm to the East Village, but that’s part of the culinary trek chef Matthew Hamilton took to bring his Euro- and Mediterranean-influenced fare to this cozy Parisian gastropub on East Fourth Street. “The influences are all my own,” says Hamilton, who spent two years on an olive farm in Italy to soak up the authenticity of the cuisine. “They’re things that I’ve seen, touched, smelled, eaten—things that I always wanted to do.” The chef, who was behind the acclaimed but now-shuttered Uovo, draws inspiration from Provence to Tunisia to deliver a menu (oil-poached octopus, grilled sweetbreads, rabbit legs) with a strong coastal verve. Even Lebanon provided some sway: Hamilton liberally uses a local fruit, sumac, to furnish a lemony spark to vinaigrette, buttermilk flatbreads, chicken and rabbit juice.

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East Village restaurants, New York restaurants, European restaurants, Mediterranean restaurants