What is going to the brand new sound of Saga be with James Beard Award-winning chef Charlie Mitchell on the helm? Nostalgia, by means of ‘90s R&B and soul. “Cooking for individuals may be very romantic and intimate to me,” mentioned Mitchell throughout a telephone interview this week. “Each time you possibly can hearken to some feel-good love music, get pleasure from a glass of wine, prepare dinner some meals — that’s one of the best place you will be in.” 

Usher and Aaliyah additionally function prominently on the playlist Mitchell helped curate himself for the September 1 reopening of the newly transformed two-Michelin-star restaurant on the 63rd ground of a skyscraper at 70 Pine St. in Manhattan’s Monetary District.

Mitchell took over Saga in 2024 after the sudden dying of Jamal James Kent, the chef who opened the restaurant and whose loss on the age of 45 despatched shockwaves by the culinary neighborhood. Within the wake of Kent’s passing, Mitchell made solely small adjustments, however the reopening of Saga will function an area and menu that’s for the primary time solely Mitchell’s.

Just like the music, nostalgia is the throughline, with influences from the meals Mitchell loved as a child. There are flavors drawn from his grandmother’s Southern cooking, traditions from his Detroit upbringing, and meals he’s been impressed by in the course of the course of his time in New York Metropolis. Seafood and seasonal greens are the star gamers. 

“We had numerous fish fries rising up, so I at all times attempt to do a rendition — that one is at all times particular to me,” mentioned Mitchell. The fish on his late-summer menu for Saga is battered and fried tempura-style. Additionally on the menu is cornbread topped with gold Osetra caviar, one other nostalgic chunk for Mitchell who mentioned, “I’ve eaten cornbread since I may chew.” Tsuyahime soiled rice is a nod to the rice Mitchell’s grandmother used to make. There is a heat potato salad and — in tribute to Kent’s outdated menu — a Moroccan tea service to finish the meal. 

His new menu doesn’t function the bigger, shareable, extra family-style service that Kent’s menu at Saga was recognized for. Which means smaller platings, the place Mitchell can command the diner’s expertise of each chunk. “I would like individuals to essentially get the purpose, actually perceive the flavors that I’m making an attempt to get them to eat and expertise,” he mentioned, admitting, “It’s just a little bit control-freak.”  

Mitchell, 33, beforehand led the kitchen at Clover Hill, the 20-seat Brooklyn Heights restaurant the place in 2022 he turned the first Black chef in New York Metropolis to earn a Michelin star and the place two years later, he received a James Beard Award for Greatest Chef: New York State. He may see each single visitor from the open kitchen and ran a good ship with an eight-person employees. 

Saga is “a very totally different bag of chips,” mentioned Mitchell. There are 100 individuals on employees and the restaurant is open seven days per week. With this enlargement comes newer, totally different, increased expectations. A press launch says the transform of the area is, “a nod to the Monetary District of the 1990.” Which means black marble tabletops by structure agency Modellus Novus, and employees uniforms by designer Sergio Hudson, with “silhouettes of classical Wall Avenue.”.  

“I’ve been govt chef for 3 years, nevertheless it’s virtually like I’m beginning over,” Mitchell mentioned. “What retains me sane is being sleek with myself and understanding that that is nonetheless just the start for me.” This echoes the recommendation he acquired from 2005 F&W Greatest New Chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park. Mitchell labored there as chef de partie simply 5 years in the past, and nonetheless displays on the phrases of his mentor. “I’m nonetheless determining my delicacies, my voice, what I’ve to say on a plate.” 

In the long run for Mitchell, “It’s such an intimate transaction, cooking for individuals. That’s at all times the vibe I would like.” Cue the Usher.