Award-winning chef Adam Weiss to open his first restaurant in Hawthorne Tuesday

F1rst, a contemporary American restaurant, is set to open in Hawthorne on July 25. Its chef and owner is Adam Weiss, a two-time winner of Ultimate Chef Bergen County and former executive chef at gastropub Stone & Rail in Glen Rock and fine-dine restaurant Esty Street in Park Ridge.

This is the first restaurant that the 46-year-old Ringwood resident owns.

"Not to get Biblical, but this is my first restaurant and Adam was the first man," Weiss said.

F1ist (it uses the No. 1 in place of the "i" in its logo), an 80-seat BYOB, is located on Lincoln Avenue in Hawthorne, just across the street from Fair Lawn and just a stroll away from Glen Rock. Weiss hopes to draw diners from both Bergen and Passaic counties. "We are right at the border," he said.

As for the menu, Weiss said it includes something for everyone — meat eaters, fish fans and vegetable lovers. Among the standout dishes are a crispy crab cake BLT with a tomato remoulade, a spicy tuna tartare with sriracha mayo, a vegan farro risotto with wild mushrooms and New Jersey corn and a steak frites crispy shoestring truffle fries.

Weiss is not only famous for his Montrachet brulee cheesecake (indeed, it's on the menu) but his ice creams. He may make the best in the region. Which is one reason that he is excited to have secured a Swiss-made Pacojet ice cream maker, which many food obsessives are familiar with, and thanks to its minor role in the film "The Menu" (one character hurls it at another), film fans may be aware of it as well today.

More: Award-winning chef Adam Weiss to open BYOB in Hawthorne

Thus on FIrst's menu are not only an assortment of ice creams and sorbets but Weiss's well-loved coconut brittle ice cream reimagined as a "F1rst Mounds Bar," ice cream made with coconut milk and covered in a lush chocolate shell.

As for how he's feeling the day before his first restaurant officially opens?

"Excitement to nervousness to everything in between," Weiss said.

Weiss, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, made his mark at New American restaurant Esty Street in Park Ridge, where he wowed critics and diners alike. He helmed the kitchen for 14 years, until 2013, earning it a three-and-a-half star review in The Record and a three-star review in New Jersey Monthly. He went on to impress again at Due, a small Italian spot in Ridgewood, which under his watch also garnered three and half stars in The Record; its founding chef and owner Chris Tarta received two out of four stars.

He then headed the kitchen at Stone & Rail for two years, leaving in June 2020. He has been doing private catering since.

F1rst is open for dinner only Tuesday through Saturday. It is located at 112 Lincoln Ave., Hawthorne, 973-830-2119.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: F1rst in Hawthorne: Chef Adam Weiss opens his first restaurant