Mike Poiarkoff

At a Glance - Role: Executive Chef. - City: New York City. - Craft focus: local sourcing, whole-animal cooking, simplicity, and wood-burning oven cookery. - In his own words: “I really wanted to put a spotlight on a condiment that often gets taken for granted in the U.S.” - On origin and ingredients, he has said: “I come from a small town outside of Pittsburgh that produces a good amount of maple syrup.” The result is a Brooklyn restaurant that reads as high-end without losing the ease of a home kitchen, translated through an exacting chef’s hand. Fire and restraint do most of the work; the room is left with the kind of lived-in comfort that can make a meal stay with you. That line about maple syrup points back to a small town outside Pittsburgh, where the pantry and the landscape seem to have informed how Mike Poiarkoff thinks about flavor. It also clarifies the logic behind his cooking: ingredients with a clear identity, handled in ways that bring that identity forward instead of covering it up. The wood-burning oven adds heat, smoke, and timing to that approach. In a kitchen built around whole-animal cooking, the method suggests completeness and discipline, with the full use of an ingredient rather than a selective cut. Paired with simplicity, those choices land less as a style statement than as a commitment to clarity.

Signature

Mike's signature dishes include Red Wattle pork chop. Within a menu built on local sourcing and wood-burning oven cookery, the dish reads as a direct expression of the same priorities: ingredient integrity, control of heat, and enough restraint to let the item speak for itself. It is a signature in the trade sense, not a flourish for its own sake.

In Their Words “I come from a small town outside of Pittsburgh that produces a good amount of maple syrup.”