Mystery Menu Pop-Up Gets Permanent Home In Brooklyn

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A popular pop-up known for its mystery menu is setting up shop in a new Prospect Heights restaurant, owners announced Tuesday.

Oxalis, the popular dinner party series known for its top secret menus and affordable price, will open its new doors Wednesday at 791 Washington Ave., according to a press release.

The restaurant — a brainchild of Chef Nico Russell, previously of Manhattan's Restaurant Daniel, partners Piper Kristensen and Steve Wong — will offer diners a surprise carte blanche menu of four to six courses each night.

Russell's mysterious and veggie-centric menu is inspired by European bistros but features local ingredients and seasonal produce.

Dishes in his repertoire include grilled young carrots with chamomile, squash with burrata and flaxseed, sunchokes with walnut and mushroom, duck with sweet potato, fig and yogurt, and selections from a rotating menu of tiny pastry called mignardises.

For the less adventurous, an a-la-carte menu will also available at the bar, which sits in its own enclosed backyard patio. The menu includes house-made brioche, grilled beef shoulder and, for dessert, pears with creme fraiche.

Food will be paired with drinks from Kristensen, the beverage director formerly of The Bearded Lady, who designs seasonal cocktails such as a beeswax and lanolin Old Fashioned, a grapefruit oil Spritz, and a mineral-adjusted Martini.

Since its launch in 2016, Oxalis has hosted more than 30 top-secret pop-up dinners, the press release noted.

The 64-seat restaurant will be open from 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations will be available on Resy.

Photos of the Oxalis interior, fluke with nigella, sour onion, and watercress, and the coffee, dark chocolate and cream cheese dessert courtesy of Margarita Garcia Acevedo