Didn’t we cook this yesterday? Don’t mess with me, pork chop!
The Greenpoint restaurant famously owned by Bill Murray’s son is cooking multi-course Sunday dinners made entirely from the kitchen’s leftovers for the bargain price of $21 — and you could end up eating it next to the “Groundhog Day” star himself.
“He comes in for dinner twice a month, and he’s here during the day,” said kitchen whiz Sean Telo, who cooks at 21 Greenpoint with Murray’s son Homer.
The Sunday special of scraps is not as gross as it sounds — or actually gross at all. Telo and his team are not raiding the compost bin, just using every last thing in their pantry and fridge.
Still, it can result in some very creative cooking, he says.
“Sometimes we’ll do oyster pizza, or take bones from a fish and make a great soup out of it,” he said.
But mostly, what goes out to the tables isn’t all that different from the restaurant’s standard fare.
The Sunday menu typically includes five to seven courses, including salad, soup, flatbread or pizza, a pasta, and a protein — often fish.
Telo and his crew devise the dishes just before service on Sundays, and still manage to create variations for different dietary requirements, he said.
The whole idea started out as a way to make brunch less boring and cumbersome, he says — the dishes are served family-style, as soon as they are ready, which cuts down on plates and serving time — but the concept was such a hit, they moved it to prime time.
“At first people didn’t know what was going on and the server had to explain, but now people come especially for it,” he said.
But the idea still clearly baffles some people.
“They don’t even try to hide the fact that the food is simply leftovers from the week,” wrote one irate Yelp reviewer.
Some customers also come hoping to catch a glimpse of Bill Murray, whose guest appearance behind the bar at 21 Greenpoint’s opening last year earned the eatery international press and lines down the street.
But the fan frenzy of opening night seems to have died down.
“When he’s here it’s very chill, no one freaks out,” said Telo. “He’s a normal dude.”
Eat a meal of leftovers at 21 Greenpoint [21 Greenpoint Ave. at West Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–8833, www.21gre
