Unnecessary Caviar on Potatoes
What happens when restaurants try to be cool
This is a story about a small bowl of potatoes with caviar on them, but it’s also about growing up. It’s about living in the same place for so long you can’t walk down the street without seeing ghosts of every storefront’s former tenants. It’s about minimalism v. maximalism, or the 2010s v. the 2020s. Most importantly, it’s about a popular restaurant that’s not very good.
A few weeks ago, my friend Leigh rode a bus down from Ithaca to visit me in my tiny Lower East Side apartment. We met in our twenties as middle-school teachers in East Harlem. Now Leigh lives in a house near a lake. We see each other twice a year.
“Have you been to Foul Witch???” Leigh texted.
“I haven’t!”
We’d seen it on Instagram: dimly-lit photos of people smiling devilishly over teensy bowls of pasta. If you haven’t heard (and if you don’t live here you likely haven’t), Foul Witch is an occult-themed restaurant serving “uninhibited natural wine in an intimate gothic setting.” They also serve food. It’s expensive and vaguely Italian. I first heard about it through Jaya Saxena’s Eater review. She compares this restaurant to the High Priestess tarot card, which symbolizes “subconscious knowledge” and “hidden mysteries.” Restaurant critic Pete Wells…
