Little Grand is located at 771 Grand Street, at the corner of Humboldt Street, and is currently open on Tuesday through Sunday for dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (the bar stays open until 1:00 a.m.), and on the weekends for brunch from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Little Grand, which opened late this past summer on the corner of Grand and Humboldt, is a welcoming, bistro-vibing bar and restaurant from longtime Williamsburg residents and restaurateurs Michael Smart (also of Hotel Delmano, established 2004) and Claudio Coronas (D.O.C. Wine Bar, since 2001), and clearly they’re doing something right.
By six o’clock last Friday evening, pretty much every seat in the place was filled, servers scurrying about with armloads of espresso martinis and such, chef Salem Williams sending out an appealing array of punchy bar snacks, briny treats from the raw bar, and a few meaty, meal-sized dishes.
It was getting loud for sure—the DJ, who goes on at 8:00 p.m. most nights, hadn’t even started yet—but the volume felt more festive and fun than forced and screamy. It was the kind of scene that you walk into and instantly say, “Ok, yeah, we made a good choice coming here tonight.”
(Photo by Scott Lynch)
The room itself gives a strong first impression. Smart also operates a restaurant design business—with clients that include Keith McNally, Stephen Starr, Jodi Williams, and Rita Sodi—which totally tracks with the look of Little Grand. Think: Art Nouveau, or art deco, with industrial touches, or as Smart put it, “It kind of falls into the category of ‘1990s Keith McNally bistro.’” Whatever the provenance, though, the attention to detail here signals that you are in good hands. “It took us three years to build this place out,” Smart said. “It was truly a labor of love.”
That level of care extends into Chef Williams’s kitchen as well. Williams spent a minute with the geniuses on the Contra/Wildair crew, then sous-cheffed at the iconic Vinegar Hill House before this current post. Chef’s Little Grand menu isn’t long, but it isn’t light either. Every dish we tried had real presence.
Anchovies on whipped mascarpone, $16, and olives ascolane, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Red snapper ceviche, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
The olives ascolane, for example, are crazy rich, five meaty castelvetranos stuffed with funky sausage, then breaded and fried to a crackle, with a peppy dipping sauce adding a bit of brightness—I could have easily eaten 30 of these. Other good things in small plates territory include a foursome of marinated anchovies laid across a thick cloud of tangy mascarpone, and the pretty plate of yuzu-forward red snapper ceviche. There’s also raw oysters, a blue crab and creme fraiche concoction, beef tartare, and a nice-looking stack of fritti misti.
Williams plans on changing things up frequently, but if the roasted delicata dish is still on the menu when you eat here, I suggest you go for it. The squash is sweet, earthy, and nicely countered by a potent basil pesto here, with sharp parmesan and crunchy pumpkin seeds completing the picture.
Wagyu burger with blue cheese and fries, $25 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
There’s a $60 strip steak available, but if that feels a bit extravagant for a random Thursday night, the $25 burger topped with melted blue cheese (or cheddar, if you prefer) and mustard aioli is by no means a sad secondary choice. The wagyu beef patty on this beauty is thick and juicy, the fries that come with it are well-salted and generously portioned, and it all makes for a wholly satisfying meal.
(Photo by Scott Lynch)
Justin Young, who heads the bar at Delmano, is also in charge of the cocktail program at Little Grand and, as Smart put it, he’s basically riffing on the classics. Drinks are $16, glasses of natural wine average about $15, and there are a bunch of draft beers available for under ten bucks.
“We’re here for people that live in the neighborhood,” Coronas told Brooklyn Magazine. “Like real people who go to work and after work they want to go out in the same style as they’d find in Manhattan, or the other part of Williamsburg, but with a more reasonable price. We want to have fun.”
There’ve been several strong openings with a similar mission in this less-touristy neck of the neighborhood of late (Rose Marie, Johnny’s, and, to some extent, JR & Son, though the latter definitely also attracts an L train party crowd), and Little Grand makes for a worthy addition to the scene.
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