Beauty & Essex

The table starts with the pass

A grilled cheese and tomato soup dumpling carries the table's first pass; chef Chris Santos shapes Beauty & Essex in Lower East Side, New York City, around that kind of shared reach. The room opened in 2010, after Santos had already worked the form at The Stanton Social, where share plates became less a service trick than a way to pace a night. His own route to the station began at Johnson & Wales University, then moved through washing pots and kitchen work at a small restaurant in Bristol, Rhode Island. In New York, the line widened: executive chef at Time Café from 1994-1998, consulting chef at Rue 57, partner and executive chef at Wyanoka from 2000, then Suba, Mojo in Brooklyn, and The Mexican Sandwich Company. At Beauty & Essex, the role is chef and restaurateur, with a menu built for passing, returning, and ordering again.

Small plates with a cocktail spine

The method here is not a tasting menu's procession. Santos writes for a table that wants variety without losing the thread, so the signatures carry familiar shapes into another register: Beauty & Essex Burger, Miso Glazed Crispy Eggplant, Truffled Mac & Cheese, Red Snapper Tacos, and the dumplings that turn grilled cheese and tomato soup into a bite passed from plate to plate. The bar program works in the same language, with craft cocktails and modern turns on classic drinks, including tea-infused cocktails named in early accounts of the restaurant. The kitchen has to hold that tone at volume. Santos has spoken of Saturday nights running 700-900 covers and Sunday brunch reaching 400, figures that change the discipline of a small plate. A dish has to survive repetition without becoming flat. A cocktail has to arrive with the room still moving.

Past the pawn shop

The entrance begins as a functioning pawn shop, stocked with vintage jewelry, custom instruments, and the kind of objects that slow the eye before the room opens. GoldGirl Lauren Kaminsky curated that threshold, and AvroKO designed the larger space beyond it. Inside, a two-story custom chandelier hangs over a grand circular staircase, with dining rooms, bars, and a lounge spreading across the multi-level plan. The room runs dim, busy, and close to theatrical, but the craft question stays practical: how to keep plates moving through a glamorous room without letting the food become scenery. The pass answers in portions meant to cross the table.

Longevity in a loud room

Beauty & Essex became the flagship for later outposts, including Las Vegas in 2017 and Mohegan Sun in 2025, but the Lower East Side address remains the reference point. Santos' work here continues beside his role as a judge on Chopped and his work beyond restaurants, including Blacklight Media Records since 2016. The shared plate leaves the kitchen, especially the Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup Dumplings.