Chefs FABIÁN VON HAUSKE VALTIERRA and JEREMIAH STONE have unveiled a suite of hot new venues in Manhattan and upstate. DAVID GRAVER books a few tables.
This September, doors opened to Brass- a lush, jazzy French brasserie-inspired restaurant tucked behind the wonders of the recently opened Tusk Bar in NoMad’s Evelyn hotel. Together, Brass and Tusk are part of NoMad’s buzzing cultural and culinary transformation. Separately, they’re delicious, dynamic representations of the flavors Chefs Fabián von Hauske Valtierra and Jeremiah Stone bring to life.
Options at Brass range from an American Wagyu steak dressed with an Armagnac-prune purée to steelhead trout served with citrus sauce, smoked trout roe, and sorrel. To complement that, Tusk Bar’s exemplary cocktail list pairs perfectly with savory morsels from the chefs-like a king crab “club” sandwich, or tuna and caviar tartare. And these two venues are only some of what the duo have been cooking up in New York lately.
“Stone and von Hauske Valtierra transformed downtown Manhattan’s culinary landscape with the introduction of Contra, which earned the chefs a Michelin star.”
More than a decade ago, Stone and von Hauske Valtierra transformed downtown Manhattan’s culinary landscape with the introduction of Contra and its five-course tasting menu for $55, which earned the chefs a Michelin star. In addition to picking up accolades, the pioneering Lower East Side eatery became a favorite with neighbors and international foodies who trekked to Orchard Street in droves. Its success led to the creation of their more casual Wildair, down the block. It, too, amassed a devout following.
Over the last two years, the chefs have been behind a series of eye-catching headlines. They led cuisine at Jac’s on Bond, the chic cocktail bar in the subterranean space once occupied by the Smile. In upstate New York, they opened Matilda, a rustic seasonally minded destination restaurant within the Henson, a charming boutique hotel where they are partners.
Matilda and the Henson joined a cultural and culinary ecosystem that the chefs helped to establish in the hamlet of Hensonville, New York, which is nestled into the Catskill Mountains not far from the ski slopes of Hunter. First, von Huske Valtierra and Stone opened up a general store named Paracasa in 2022, which sells pantry staples and luxuriant provisions, as well as award-winning cinnamon rolls. In the summer of 2023, they launched Day June Luncheonette, a quaint breakfast and lunch spot on the same street that serves top-quality diner fare and elevated comfort food.
To the dismay of many, in 2023, they unexpectedly announced the closure of Contra-but teased something brand new. “It’s a very emotional thing to think about. So much happened there,” von Hauske Valtierra tells Avenue of Contra. “It was our first business. It was our Michelin star. There was a lot of attention. There were a lot of guests, guest chefs, and friends. Walking through the dining room, people would stop me and tell me how much the place meant to them. I think it’s just as special to see what it meant to other people as reflecting on what it meant to us.”
“Contra was very personal. It was about creative fulfillment,” he adds, “but everything has a lifespan. You’re not the person you were 10 years ago. Now we see a bigger picture.” In July, Stone and von Hauske Valtierra welcomed guests back to the Contra space, which they had reimagined as Bar Contra. Though the interior has changed dramatically, the sense of excitement remains the same; the spirit, as well. New, however, were cocktails by drinks legend Dave Arnold and small bites of boundless creativity —a celeriac crumpet with wakame butter; a fresh, flavorful Montauk scarlet prawn; a mouth-watering chicken wing served boneless and stuffed with Stilton and pork sausage.
These dishes demonstrate their sharp imagination and keen understanding of flavor and underscore the chefs’ commitment to new ideas. “Jeremiah doesn’t like seeing things repeated,” von Hauske Valtierra explains. “I’ll say, ‘We should bring back that Milanese we did seven years ago,’ and he will say, ‘That chapter is closed.’” Certain staple categories do return, but in unexpected ways. For instance, their Instagram-famous orange creamsicle pie is gone from the Jac’s menu, but a new concord grape and pretzel pie took its place.
“We have time together where we will go over ideas, but there is also time apart where we talk to the sous chefs or explore different ideas independently. Whenever one of us comes up with something, we will all try it as a team. We make sure that it’s part of the overall vision. We’ve spent so much time together that we’re of the same mindset all the time,” von Hauske Valtierra says.
It’s the strength of their close relationships with partners and collaborators that has allowed their efforts to expand in recent years. “We’ve really put ourselves out there. If there’s an interesting person with similar values, we can create with them,” he explains. This has blossomed into their own openings, as well as consulting work with Authentic Hospitality, their partner on Jac’s, for the menus at hot spot bars like Ray’s in Greenpoint and the Broken Shaker atop the Freehand Hotel, not far from Brass.
“We didn’t think of doing anything else beyond Contra for years,” Stone says. “Contra was inspired by places we loved in Europe, and that mentality was not having multiple venues or concepts. You had one place.” A shift occurred over time and with opportunity. “It was really intense for years,” he adds. “We had this high-level, Michelin-star mentality that meant we had to execute at a certain pace. What the kitchen at Bar Contra feels like now is along the lines of the spirit of the last moments, right before we shut Contra, where we were having fun and keeping it lively.”
From concept to cuisine, all their venues differ dramatically. “There are certain restraints and certain freedoms,” Stone says, “but we both have so many ideas about dishes that we want to do. We walk into every kitchen and say, ‘What’s available to be done here right now?’”
Brass became about blending the essence of a French brasserie with an American theme and Australian freshness—there’s also an upscale conviviality. On a recent night, a dinner guest moved over to the piano in the center of the back dining room and began to play for everyone. Complementary to that, Bar Contra ended up being a conceptual rebirth, in the exact spot where they began, that aligned with all their other developing ventures.
Stone, who is from Maryland, and von Hauske Valtierra, who’s originally from Mexico City, met at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Stone spent time in some of the best kitchen’s in Paris, from Le Châteaubriand to Rino; von Hauske Valtierra ventured between Australia’s Attica, Sweden’s Fäviken, and Denmark, where he worked at Noma under René Redzepi. They stayed friends throughout and upon their return knew they would work together.
Stone jokes about the concepting at the very beginning of their partnership together. “Initially, we were looking to do an ice cream shop rather than a tasting menu restaurant and for months we talked about doing that with pop-up dinners in the back,” he says. “That was the original idea that morphed into Contra over the course of a year.”
Contra’s success led to so much, a cookbook, entitled A Very Serious Cookbook: Contra Wildair, included. But it was those personal stories from Contra guests that helped the chefs understand that they needed to keep the space and continue its legacy in a new way.
“We didn’t even decide on the name, Bar Contra, until after we closed,” Stone says. Now, he says, it feels both revitalized and yet so familiar. “There’s this sense of confidence that we feel, that we can host people in this space because we’ve been in it for so long.”
Orchard Street has seen substantial development since they first moved in. With Brass and Tusk Bar, they aren’t leading the advancement of a neighborhood but they’re certainly contributing to it. All eyes are on NoMad. The same can be said of their efforts upstate; though the town of Hensonville might not be a household name, the Catskills continue to foster their own immensely creative communities and also welcome New Yorkers looking for an idyllic escape.
“It’s a lifelong dream to have all these places, to have people reach out and want to work with you,” von Hauske Valtierra says. “The last few years we’ve just been working. It’s a lot of work —but we want to do the work. With Contra, at first it was our creative end-all. Now, all these projects are outlets to hold new ideas.” And regardless of which bar or restaurant you try first— or again—you’re likely to discover an extraordinarily delicious idea on the menu.
