- [Jeremiah] We never set out to get a Michelin star.
You know, I think it's funny
that this place became appreciated by establishments
that kind of award, normally, much more high-end places.
The name Contra, I think, kind of just took
on a life of its own.
I looked up what it meant in Latin, and it meant against.
I was like,
"This is kinda like we're the contra of fine dining."
- [Fabian] The name became varied things.
We've always formed in this line of like --
you know, we're not fine dining, by no means.
And I don't like fine dining,
and I don't think you like fine dining either,
but somehow we've ended up in this weird spectrum
of a restaurant with high motivations.
- When we opened in 2013, at that time, it wasn't really
anything else that we really felt was that affordable
in a prix fixe, tasting menu format.
At the time, in New York, I feel like there's
a lot of restaurants that are French, Italian,
and we wanted to take a little bit of what we had seen
of just highlighting great product very simply.
That's what really drove the early days of Contra.
- We have a format that we want to convey.
Every dish sort of represents a little thing
amongst this journey we want to take people into.
- [Jeremiah] The vegetable-based menu
kind of started as an answer to people
who were looking for substitutes to the dishes that we had.
We wanted to have a little more freedom with it,
so then it's not just for a vegetarian to enjoy.
It kind of added a little bit more versatility to the menu.
Right now, we're starting off with a set custard.
Then it has a soup on top, but it's very bright,
and it's very clean and simple.
And then that goes into something that is
a little bit more rich and fatty.
We have a potato dish that is a little bit smaller
'cause of how, kind of, luxurious it is.
Bit of sweetness.
And then it goes into this white asparagus dish,
which has a little bit more pungency.
It's a pretty simple dish but also there's, like --
When it all comes together,
there's a lot of different notes to it.
We take white asparagus, poach it in a dashi
for a short amount time.
That [it] gets roasted and basted with an onion stock,
and it goes on top of the asparagus.
Then it gets cured egg yolks,
some different flowers and herbs, such as mint,
chive flowers, arugula flowers, and brassica flowers.
A little bit of grated feta.
And then some breadcrumbs.
It just has a few little different textural things.
It's a nice mix of flavors, and you get
something very meaty and interesting,
which would normally be something very simple.
After that, you're eating a little bit more
of a heavier main, which is turnip that has been sheeted
and brushed with thyme, garlic, and butter,
and then basted and roasted with mushrooms.
So it's more of an earthy dish.
So when it comes to dealing with more vegetable notes,
you're looking at playing with earthiness,
vibrant and green, raw flavors, instead of having meaty,
you go for things like mushrooms, onions, and garlic,
which give a lot of sensation of umami and sharp flavors.
- [Fabian] The last savory dish,
which is something extremely textural, from that,
we just wanna take you to something that's very simple.
Something familiar, like strawberries and cream.
And we're like,
"What can we do to make it a little more interesting?"
And so we do it like a very subtle lavender ice cream
but it just cleanses your palate,
and it gets you ready for the next dessert.
And then, the last dessert, we always try to evoke something
that is childhood-like.
When I think about my childhood,
I always thing about creamsicles,
and the blackberry is what a creamsicle would be to me.
You have a very acidic, frozen component,
which is the blackberry and then you have
the creamy component, which is the bitter almond.
When we open, we realize that we're very different people,
but because we're friends, we're able to work together
and sort of make those two different ways of thinking
live in one place.
- A lot of the places that Fabian has worked is a little bit
more, maybe, ambitious fine dining,
and I've worked places that are a little bit more simple
or rustic in some ways, and so we balance each other out.
- [Fabian] We like food that's very simple.
We like eating fresh.
And we like eating things that we recognize.
- [Jeremiah] The difficulty in cooking
with very few ingredients is that
you can't hide behind anything.
You're saying, "These are the things that we really believe
are worth eating together."
- I think it's great, having that counterpart.
It allows you to be more flexible and to have more freedom.