As a New York City kid being raised by an interior-designer-mother and an apartment-flipping-father, I’m no stranger to ABC Carpets. As a child, I spent many an afternoon running through the display floor, playing hide-and-seek behind hanging rugs. But until this trip home, I was unfamiliar with the restaurants adjacent to the store. Far more reasonably priced than Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s eponymous restaurant, abcV was Little Sister’s choice for her birthday dinner. I was more than happy to accompany her.
abcV is a plant-based restaurant serving an assortment of mostly-vegan dishes with a few vegetarian options for good measure. Options range from ultra-simple to fairly complex, and we started on the former end of the scale with a seasonal salad of tomatoes, thinly sliced fennel, and nectarines. It wooed us right off the bat: it’s simple enough that you could make it at home, so the ingredient selection here was crucial to its success, and this dish nailed it, with some of the ripest summer fruit I’ve ever tasted.
A happy accident led us to enjoy these lettuce, sweet potato, and avocado wraps topped with crunchy pepitas. While we didn’t order them, we were more than happy to polish them off – in fact, they ended up being one of my favorite dishes!
This dish may well have been the winner for me… if I’d eaten it in about two months. Richly flavored roasted carrots were paired with finger lime, chile, and a nut butter sauce. I can only imagine how warming and comforting this vegan dish will be in fall.
This deeply hued beet carpaccio appealed to our taste for brine: pickled beets, fried capers, and gherkins united on this plate, with a swirl of avocado purée for good measure.
I’m not usually all that drawn to rice, but I was pleasantly surprised by this dish selected by Little Sister: a coconut-infused rice topped with tons of crispy scallions, peanuts, perfectly fried lemongrass-infused eggplant slices, and fresh chile.
After careful consideration, this dish of butter beans was my favorite of the evening. The applewood-smoked beans were paired with crispy maitake mushrooms and a woodsy ginger and rosemary vinaigrette. The textural contrast between the whole beans and the smooth bean purée was perfect.
The dessert competition was fierce, and in the end, despite not really having the room for it, we ordered two. This chocolate mousse was paired with apricots and passionfruit and served over a nutty crumble that, for me (aka the non-chocolate-lover of the family) was the best part.
My true love on the dessert menu was a vegan raspberry soft serve paired with whole raspberries, freeze-dried raspberries, and lemon-thyme syrup. Yes, please.
My experience here would have been positively perfect if the restaurant hadn’t fallen somewhat victim to its popularity. As it was, even with a reservation, we had to wait for a table, and we could feel them hustling us along near the end to make way for new guests. In spite of this, the staff was kind, knowledgeable, and friendly – and this won’t keep me from returning again and again.
abcV – 38 E 19th St, New York, NY 10003