Kid Is a Love Letter to the Perfect New York Slice
Like a primary school classroom in a Wes Anderson film, everything at Kid has a purpose. Colorblock pizza shakers double as vessels for house-dried spices and decor. An arcade game floats at the end of a bright yellow hallway to engage young diners as adults drink organic wine from upstate New York, though I wouldn’t be surprised if some millennials found themselves in a fiery round of Pac-Man. Each bathroom has a pastel telephone, a nod to the bubblegum pink one at Kid’s sister restaurant, Motel Morris.
At Chelsea’s new family hang, which opened Friday, Jan. 17 at 157 West 18th Street, even the architecture invites guests to be playful. Throughout the sweeping white and wood two-story space, formerly an electric warehouse, pipes are painted red to accent Kid’s logo, stamped everywhere from the takeout pizza boxes to the tile floor to servers’ t-shirts. A large circular cut-out in the wall of the entrance evokes the feeling of childhood—peering into a playground tunnel and imagining the world that waits on the other side. This one is full of pizza.
Kid is the third project from brothers Sam and Brett Nidel and Brett’s wife, Tamara McCarthy. McCarthy joined the team a month after moving from Ireland to New York in 2011, and soon after, the trio opened their first spot, a buzzy cafe called The Commons Chelsea. In 2017, McCarthy and the Nidels launched Motel Morris, a seasonal American bistro in the same building as The Commons. Around the corner, just 300 feet away, Kid completes this family affair as a Tuesday through Saturday evening restaurant designed to accommodate parties of all sizes and ages.
Inside, sage green booths for parties of two and four line the walls around abundant table seating and a stately metallic bar. Out of Kid’s 4,500-square-foot interior, all of which was designed by McCarthy and Brooklyn-based studio 44 LLC, the lower level is the top contender for my retro-loving heart. If Greta Gerwig and Andy Warhol designed a diner together, I imagine it would look something like this.
A baby blue hallway gives way to a standing-room-only electric-poppy bar. Its dual serving windows cater to the distinct dining rooms on each side. One is tamed by wooden walls, geometric sculptures and a natural gleam from a surprising skylight; the other lets loose with shiny green-silver paneling and modern art; both come together with monochromatic checkerboard floors. The basement can accommodate private parties of up to 50 guests, host projector film screenings and, potentially, overflow when the upstairs is packed.
Another contender for my (this time, tinned fish-loving) heart was the anchovy pizza. Now, I never order pizza without cheese. Frankly, I consider tomato pies a bit ludicrous. But the glowing recommendations from both my server, Junior, who was as engaging as he was earnest, and Marc Ellert-Beck, Kid’s director of operations, formerly of Il Buco, inspired me to try it. Sweet acidity from the tomato sauce brightened up beside the tangy earthiness of the roasted broccoli rabe. Cantabrian anchovies, sourced from Spain’s Bay of Biscay and regarded as some of the best-tasting anchovies in the world, culminated in a depth of umami flavor that sang with a sip of Malgiacca, a Sangiovese/Canaiolo blend from Tuscany that made its first and only U.S. debut at Kid.
“We wanted to create the feeling of a New York slice and what everyone loves about it. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s more of a love letter to the New York we grew up in,” Sam Nidel told Observer.
He and Brett grew up between Great Neck, Long Island and the Upper West Side, where their father had lived since they were children. They bounced back and forth from Gino’s to Carmine’s, and became indelibly defined by that first-bite feeling when the cheese is piping hot, the oil is perfectly pooled and the crust is crisped with just the right amount of texture.
To develop a menu that is both current and nostalgic, the Nidels and McCarthy brought on culinary director and executive chef Ian Coogan, a New York native with a resume including Altro Paradiso, ABC Kitchen and ABC Cocina. They also worked with Max Blachman-Gentile of Tartine Bakery as a culinary consultant to figure out how to relay the format of a great slice into a personal pie.
“We’re so lucky that we have Max to create our pizza. He’s been huge in working with Ian to get the pizza program just right. It was really organic. We just ate tons of pizza together, tasted all around the city to find the just right pie,” McCarthy, who grew up in her father’s Irish pub before becoming a graphic designer, told Observer.
The plain pie does what it set out to and is easy to enjoy alongside other pies like pepperoni, Brussels sprout with pancetta and mixed mushroom duxelles (all $20 to $26). A counter to the savory selections, the white pie al limone, is made with smooth ricotta and topped with shaved, tart wedges of Meyer lemons. It’s quietly decadent with dainty dollops of cream—one of my go-tos atop white bresaola pizza in Northern Italy, and an addition I was delighted to see on an American menu. To liven up the zest, try a dash of the tableside red pepper, which hangs to dry before being hand-crushed in the Kid kitchen.
Chef Coogan also delves into vegetables, which make up a good portion of the menu. Served like shareable tapas, the veggie dishes range from $14 to $22. A full head of baby lettuces basted in buttermilk-anchovy dressing and fine-grated parm was crisp, buttery and briny. The shaved fennel salad is refreshing with chiles, mint and citrus. Hearty bites like the cylindrical tower of melty eggplant parm, butter beans with salsa verde or the tarragon-flecked Hen of the Woods mushrooms all make for satiating vegetarian fare.
For folks on a tear for richer Italian snacks, there are heavier starters like crab claw cocktail (not the raw bar kind, but seriously battered and fried), fried mozzarella fritters and cheesy garlic fingers. There are staples like juicy prosciutto melone, crudites with lemon-tahini and burrata with tomatoes and bread, as well as a small selection of meats, including chicken alla diavola ($36), a whole roasted black sea bass and bone-in short rib (each $75).
“The fun thing about the menu is you can do it different ways. There are so many vegetable plates and starters. You can come for the pizza and have a few things, or just have a bunch of small plates,” Brett told Observer.
For the kids, there’s a DIY Shirley Temple bar and black and white cookies. For the grown-ups, there’s a cocktail program that’s hats off to the Big Apple (‘East River Martini’ and ‘Everyone Has a Fruit Guy’), a $16 vermouth service and thoughtful wines that support New York vintners and small producers with organic growing practices.
And when it comes to the namesake for this old school, new school neighborhood haunt, know that ‘Kid’ isn’t meant to cater to child-rearing New Yorkers, though it happily accommodates them. Instead, it celebrates the vernacular that every resident, be they Upper East Siders or Brooklynites, has heard ringing off the tongue of a Tony or a Gino as his hands dance with the dough ascending in mid-air: “What’ll ya have, kid?”