Everything You Need to Know About Confidant, Now Open in Brooklyn

1. The owners met working the line at Roberta’s.

It was platonic love at first sight for Grossman and Kelley when they started working together at Roberta’s in 2018. Within six months of meeting, they became roommates and started talking about opening a restaurant together. They no longer live together, but the restaurant is now becoming a reality.

“We each wanted to own a restaurant at some point in our early life, and I think we found that out about each other within the first couple days of working the line,” Kelley says. “We always wanted to do a project by ourselves, and when we met, we wanted to do it together.”

Their influences go beyond Roberta’s, they say, although that experience has played a huge role in what they’ve done with Confidant. For Kelley, who grew up out west, river fish have always been a favorite ingredient, as well as Scandinavian influences picked up from his time working in Copenhagen.

“On this opening menu, it’s [going to be] a lot of dishes inspired by things we did at other restaurants or cooked that really inspired us, with our own twists,” Grossman says.

2. It’s the first spot of its kind in the neighborhood.

Confidant is the first full-service restaurant in Industry City, an honor that the duo is looking forward to. While the owners of Industry City — a trio of real estate developers — had initially considered bringing in big-name chefs, they eventually decided to land on this pair of up-and-coming chefs, and it’s a role both chefs take very seriously.

“[The area] feels like a really cohesive incubator for interesting places, and a natural next step for it was to have a full sit down restaurant,” Grossman says. “We’re really excited to be that for them.”

And they want to be a launching pad for other chefs, too. “We’re trying to mentor our staff as much as possible. If we have a chef that puts on a dish, we want to highlight them. We don’t just want it to become our dish,” Kelley says. “We worked at many places as line cooks where you get no recognition at all. We want to create that environment where we keep pushing and teaching our staff, so that one day they’ll have their own place, and they’ll be passing us.”

3. Expect lots of dry aging and seafood.

Confidant will open with dinner service, but eventually plans to expand with a limited lunch menu to best serve the neighborhood.

The focus will be on seafood, including in-house dry aging, and practicing sustainable use of all of the parts of the fish.

“What a lot of places would say is waste is something we want to utilize in every possible way we can,” Grossman says. “An example of that is bringing in the whole tuna and finding five different ways to preserve and prepare it. We might make a crudo, charcuterie, a protein standout, and a dry-aged presentation.” Confidant’s tuna prosciutto comes with housemade mushroom garum, lemon, and olive oil, and their tuna belly crudo is accompanied by Seckel pears, radishes, red carrot juice, and bottarga.

Also on the menu will be a made-to-order prawn pot pie, inspired by Grossman’s time at Gage & Tollner, with puff pastry. They’ve also got a 70-day dry-aged steak to share that they’re sourcing from Ends Meat, an Industry City butcher, and seasoning it with togarashi and black pepper.

Lunch will feature grain bowls, sandwiches, and burgers driven by seasonal ingredients.

“Dinner is more elevated. I call it ‘casual fine dining’. We want to appeal to the neighborhood and the people around, but also want people coming from Manhattan to feel like it’s worth making a trip,” Grossman says. “There will be elevated service, and our dishes will reflect that.”

4. Come ready to drink some good natural wine.

The wine list was curated by a close friend of the pair who also happens to be one of the city’s premier experts on the subject. Libertine owner Cody Pruitt helped select the bottles on the 50 to 70 selection list, and Pruitt also helped them determine the classic cocktails with a modern twist they’ll have on offer.

Expect miso-infused cocktails, and a version of an espresso martini, mixed here with a drink Kelley loves from his hometown, Telluride, Colo.

“In Industry City, there’s really nowhere to come to have a glass of wine. We’re really trying to push that you can come in for wine, hang out at the lounge, the bar, or the chef’s counter,” Kelley says.

5. The design reflects them both.

Like most of the elements of Confidant, the interior of the space is a mix of the two chefs.

“Brendan comes from Telluride, up the mountains, really immersed in nature, and I come from New York,” says Grossman. “We want you to feel like you are here [in New York], while also blending that feeling of warmth and greenery that you experience in nature.”

This expresses itself in the form of earth tones, exposed concrete, and lots of greenery. The centerpieces, which will hold flowers during the day and candles at night, were built by Grossman’s father and grandfather, and the wooden tables were built by one of their friends. There’s a big open kitchen with a chef’s counter where you’ll find both of them each night. In the lounge, there’s mismatched furniture that serves as a spot to wait for a table with a drink or to enjoy dessert.

“It’s meant to feel like you’re walking into our home and hanging out in our living room,” Grossman says.

Confidant is open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner starting at 5 p.m. Breakfast and lunch service is also forthcoming.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). Follow Resy, too.