restaurant
Jean’s has a club downstairs, but upstairs feels just as much as clubby and night-time geared as an space. Jumping on the french-dip craze, Jean’s provides sandwiches, entrees and all sorts of foods that can be paired with/without a martini.
As someone who used to live in Williamsburg and frequent the former Black Flamingo, it was exciting to see the space reshape as Ensenada, a refreshing Mexican corner-spot that serves tasty and beautiful ceviches, aguachiles and other bright plates.
After years of being closed, the renovated Chelsea Hotel returned with a bang, and it’s restaurant Cafe Chelsea delivers on the experience of a classic French brasserie with traditional and new twists on menu items, like the delicious Maitake au Poivre, pictured below.
North of the city and east into the river is the City Island Pizza Company which I captured for The Infatuation. With it’s somewhat nautical themed design, and core selection of red-sauce pizza joints, CIPC delivers a unique experience in an island overrun with fish fries.
For an editorial review on The Manner Hotel, I was tasked photograph both the new cocktail bar, Sloane’s, and The Otter, from chef Alex Stupack who I had actually shot a few years before, which features a bright seafood centric menu in a wonderfully Art Deco space.
The quality of food in a restaurant is so important but an interior and vibe can compliment or exceed a diner’s experience. Such is the case with NAKS, which has a gorgeous dining room where the communal Kamayan feasts are served to diners without utensils. It seems like this sort of palm-laden interior was co-opted by Tiki culture and bars for years, so it’s nice to see if in embraced by a restaurant whose Filipino culture was used to inspire the Tiki world in the first place.
Hoexter’s is a very stylish Upper East Side Brasserie, with the same management group as the previously shared Il Totano. When photographing food, it’s great to have a hand model on standby but rarely is it the case that you’ll have one with beautifully tattooed hands that so perfectly interplay with the food at hand.
As a hired gun, sometimes a photographer is required to fill the shoes of someone else’s work. As Animo! opened it’s doors in the Upper East Side, it had a photo library captured before the restaurant was even in its space and the client wanted images that emulated the same feel. To me, the images didn’t look as lively and interesting as I thought they could be but I was grateful to have the hands of a stylist by my side and turn this dishes into life.
As a Greenpoint resident, and Los Angeles native/taco snob, I’ve always been a huge fan of Taqueria Ramirez and was super excited when The Infatuation asked me to cover the new restaurant from the crew, Carnitas Ramirez. Very similar in size/build/style to the Greenpoint counterpoint, the small shop features only pork based tacos from all parts of the pig - all very delicious.
From chef Harold Dieterle comes Il Totano, a west village Italian restaurant with a gorgeous interior and beautifully seafood-focused dishes. This may have been discussed in another post but, usually, when I’m faced with a restaurant that, often always, I am experiencing for the first time, I tend to choose lighting that compliments the space and the vibe. When the entrees are climbing into the $40 range, I often tend to use a softer light which, to me, feels a little more elegant. However, given the bright colors of the food and the interiors, I convinced the team to allow me to use a harder light that would create some shadows but also allow me to use the glassware/drinks to create a glossier and fresh look that I think makes all the dishes more appealing and somewhat conjures the feeling of eating seafood on a sun-drenched balcony overlooking the Italian Riviera.
From chef Stefano Secchi of Rezdora comes a new Southern Italian kitchen, Massara. Featuring a wood fired grill and pizza oven, the restaurant serves grilled entrees, and a slew of pastas and pizzas.
Olivia Jane designs eye-catching and thoughtful spaces that pay tribute to their surrounding environments but also entice onlookers from afar. She has worked with Atlantic City based Il Verdi to create a massive space that opens out into a casino, and compliments the glitzy neon machines but once you reach the beachfront area, it’s airy space and dining cabana inject a calmness that may be hard to find in a casino.
Just up the Hudson, in North Salem, lies the forest filled oasis Cena Dou, a French restaurant with both casual and fine dining concepts. The space is serene, and overlooks the tree-laden valley, with just as beautiful dishes to accompany.
I had previously shared some photos for Superfrico, which is a restaurant adjacent to The Hook, a circus-like show, curated by Speigelworld, who hosts shows around the country, headquarted in Las Vegas. To promote The Hook and Superfrico, I was asked to photograph some of the characters from the performance (primarily acrobatic performers) in the restaurant space itself. Here are some selections from that shoot.
I love going to a spa. At home, when I travel, anytime. Which is why I was very excited to photograph SoJo Spa Club for The Infatuation's Winter 25 list. Although I usually don’t eat there when I visit they have a pretty full menu that pairs nicely with a cold plunge.
Meju is a fine dining, set-menu restaurant in the back of a lovely Korean market in Long Island City. The Infatuation was in need of some photos to accompany their review, and so they called upon yours truly to do so. When I light food, I try to match the mood of the space and the vibe. As Meju is an upscale one-seating-per-evening speakeasy playing Sinatra, it gave off the vibe of a single softbox sort of aesthetic, which you can view below.
Speigelworld has produced some modern adult-driven cabaret/circus-style performances in Las Vegas and, somewhat, recently opened a location in Atlantic City, with their adjacent restaurant, Superfrico. Although there is also a Superfrico in Las Vegas, the menus varies slightly and the team was in need of photography of the dishes and the spaces below.
Gilligan’s is an outdoor oasis of a bar/restaurant at the Soho Grand Hotel. The client wanted their images to have a softness to them so, against my normal routine (and preferences), we shot only using natural light which did create a certain aesthetic that I’m happy to produce, but not the biggest fan of. It worked for the client, so it worked for me.
The tequila brand, Mijenta, has been teaming up with bars and restaurants to spread awareness of their product and inspire tequila-forward cocktails. Partnering with chic-Hudson Yards adjacent ZouZou’s, the two entities hosted a party that included an ice luge and narcotic-like dealings of caviar. View the video below.
I’ve rarely worked with stylists because most often I work with restaurants where the chefs or the marketing contacts are the ones styling the foods. I was lucky enough to work with the super talented Judy Kim who elevated the red-sauce food of Tony’s DiNapoli and truly elevated my photography. I almost feel like I didn’t even take these photos because Judy was the true artist who crafted such beautiful scenes below.
