NEWBROOK KITCHEN – A COOL CONVERSATION WITH CHEF DANIELLE
By Ralph Beauchamp
So something a little different for AMP. Newbrook Kitchen is not any ordinary restaurant but more of a culinary experience. Chef Danielle (Hartog) offers fine dining with a totally singular ambiance. Everything about Newbrook Kitchen is edgy. The space has a sublime brazen feel. Something different and original. The hi-end fixed menu is superb and full of surprises. The flavors are ferociously delightful. Newbrook Kitchen is divinely enticing.
Chef Danielle‘s story is also interesting. She comes from a family of chefs. While in culinary school she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, a a chronic autoimmune disorder. The only treatment is a lifelong, strict gluten-free diet which nearly sidelined Chef Danielle‘s culinary career. She learned to overcome and rise above her medical affliction.
My wife, Jenn, and I dined at Newbrook Kitchen last month. It was one of Newbrook‘s Jazz nights. Between the open kitchen and bar, Kevin Miller (Guitar) and Tyler Sherman (Standup Bass) played music that delivered palettes of lush textures that enhanced the total experience. Even though we sat at one of the low-top tables, we felt entirely part of the Newbrook dining community. We weren’t aware that Newbrook was a BYOB establishment and another table offered up their extra bottle of wine and wouldn’t take compensation. It didn’t seem like this was an anomaly. Just par for the course at Newbrook.
Newbrook Kitchen is located at 36 Wallingford Road Cheshire CT 06410 Phone Number is 203-858-7531. Their Supper Club nights sell out quickly and are reserved via email the month before. Hit up their website for updates and special offerings.
Chef Danielle was kind enough to sit with AMP for this cool conversation.
AMP: Your career almost took a different path after your health diagnosis. How did that moment reshape your identity as a chef?
CHEF DANIELLE: When I got diagnosed, I actually decided that I wasn’t going to cook anymore. At that time, gluten free was seen as some sort of handicap and I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit in the culinary world. So, I left culinary school and enrolled at UConn to study communications. I was going to do anything other than cook.
My second year at college, I had an off campus residence with no meal plan. I started cooking gluten free for myself. I began to realize that a gluten free menu might actually work. My mother, who is also a chef, got diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder as well. When I graduated UConn, I opened my first restaurant with my mom. It was a gluten free/paleo café. We decided we were going to cook with a healthier approach. That was 2017 and gluten free still held a slight stigma. We had a very warm community of patrons who regularly frequented the café. Athletes, doctors and a wonderful group of people ate there.
The café closed during Covid and I decided to take a position at Yale as their culinary manager. All of a sudden, I began to realize I wanted to open another establishment. I wanted to dive into a covert gluten free menu in a fine dining setting. I wanted to cater to all kinds of different food allergies while still maintaining an upscale menu. Newbrook was born from that desire.
AMP: Newbrook Kitchen feels more like a “social dining experience” rather than a typical restaurant. What were you trying to disrupt in the traditional fine-dining model?
CHEF DANIELLE: Love the question! I was trying to disrupt waste. That’s my biggest concern. At the café, my mother was excellent at keeping our waste to a minimum. When we moved here, the clearest marker for controlling our waste was to know how many people were coming every night. I only prepare for the amount of reservations I have for the evening. We only cook what we need.
And by disrupting waste, I can keep people’s cost down. My costs may be high but I can pass on savings to my customers because I work out the expenses to the penny. Also, I prepare everything during the day by myself and my volunteer mother. My staff only comes in for the service in the evening. This also keeps my overhead even lower..
The dining experience is community driven. It’s fine dining without the stuffiness. In that way, I only need two servers and several high school students to handle the floor. We try to establish a family feel. It’s low key and friendly. We are trying to replace that fine dining grandiose with a more laid back vibe. Our patrons love it.
AMP: You don’t use recipes and create entirely new menus regularly. How does that creative process work?
CHEF DANIELLE: My creative process has become a little standard. For the three years we’ve been open, I’ve created a new menu every month. We are now at thirty six different offerings. I also do signature pop-up events, so that brings it up to around 45. It starts with a small bite and then the menu follows a certain script which is soup/salad, poultry, fish, red meat and dessert/coffee.
I check my monthly purveyors and seasonal produce lists for that particular month and start piecing the menu together. I build the menu in about a day or two and I test it at the end of the current month. I’m always a menu ahead. In addition, I never repeat a dish. I may repeat aspects of a particular dish but there is always a variance.
AMP: The space has been described as a mix between a supper club and live theater. How intentional is that immersive element?
CHEF DANIELLE: Completely intentional. When I went to culinary school before my diagnosis, my mom and I started a children’s kitchen school. We have always worked together. She taught me a way to serve food without having to lock yourself in the kitchen for sixteen hours a day / seven days a week. Plus, I like acting. I grew up doing community theater. Both my parents are active in the local theater scene. So, I decided to make my kitchen my own personal theater. It’s an open kitchen. It’s live theater to me and my guests.
AMP: How do you encourage connection among diners who may not know each other?
CHEF DANIELLE: The tables over there tend to be for larger groups that usually know each other. The bar is something special. Quite often, people seated at the bar start conversing with each other even though there is no prior connection. The biggest question is “have you been here before” and then the conversation begins to flow. A lot of my regulars prefer the bar because they love to talk to the newbies. I can hear certain conversations going on and chime in as well. It keeps things lively. In addition, my servers recognize people and they can start a the ball rolling. It’s a warm community atmosphere.
Also, by having everyone on the same course at the same time there is more social interaction between the courses. In a traditional restaurant, your food is time specific to you. Everyone is served in their individual timeframes. Here, everyone gets the same course at the same time which sets a unique pace. Between courses, diners usually talk to each other about what they just ate. It’s definitely fun to watch people loosening up.
AMP: You’ve grown from smaller seatings to hosting dozens of guest per event. What challenges came with scaling while staying intimate?
CHEF DANIELLE: When I was at my prior space in the Watch Factory building my rent was low which offered me the opportunity to scale slowly and appropriately rather than taking too much on all at once. At that time, I had only fourteen seats. I honed everything with precision. I only needed one or two staff members.
Each time I scaled up (usually by five seats), I would hire a new member to the team. Everything grew proportionally. Every time I felt we were capped out, it got slightly larger. We now are at over forty seats but I feel the intimacy is still there due to the immersive layout and the once again, the pacing of the servings. This formula has kept the intimacy index at Newbrook at a perfect level.
AMP: How do cooking classes and special events fit into your overall business vision?
CHEF DANIELLE: When I first opened I was only doing four supper clubs a month. The cooking classes and special events were more than carrying the load. Now that we are doing twelve to fourteen dinners a month, the classes and events are great extras. I was taking about ten special events a month. Currently we are talking about two larger functions in the same timeframe. For example, I have a private event this Saturday that literally brought out the house.
The cooking classes are also great corporate moral boosters. I have companies using the classes for team building and holiday functions. I do one public cooking class a month which tends to be a real crowd pleaser and a lot of fun.
AMP: One ingredient you can’t live without?
CHEF DANIELLE: Balsamic Vinegar. I love the acidity it brings to food. I use balsamic as a tool to break up some of my heavier ingredients such as cutting through the fat. In addition, when I combine balsamic vinegar with citrus juices, it captures a lovely sweetness and boosts flavor levels.
AMP: Dream guest at your supper club?
CHEF DANIELLE: Dominique Crenn. She has a Michelin star restaurant (Atelier Crenn) in San Francisco that I wanted to bring my husband to but she switched her menu to almost entirely seafood and my husband doesn’t like fish. But she is a badass female chef who has paved her own way. She takes no bullshit.
AMP: What’s next for you and Newbrook Kitchen and how do you see the concept evolving in the next few years?
CHEF DANIELLE: The next step is transforming upstairs ideally into a parlour room. I’m not sure if I will get a liquor license or if it will be open an hour before or after the supper club but since I own the building, I feel it would be a nice accent to the space. I want to go with the flow and create something immersive and fun. In addition, we do murder mystery nights and they are really taking off.
As to the Supper club, I really like where I’m at. I really feel it’s up to capacity. The space can’t take any more growth. But you never know!
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