Chef Jordan Andino Opens Carriage House in the West Village
Before Carriage House was on his radar, chef Jordan Andino encountered what would years later become the setting for his first full-service restaurant.
In January 2019, the Flip Sigi chef and TV personality was walking with two of his business partners to a cocktail bar in the West Village when they passed a vacant space at 142 West 10th Street.
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“I peek in and I’m like, damn, that is a sexy spot for a restaurant,” recalls Andino. “[The space] is long; it would create a really amazing atmosphere. It’s located mid block, which means only people who know about it would come — which means you don’t get tourists, you get locals. It’s small enough that it looks like it could be 60 to 80 seats, and thus not overcrowded.”
His two partners urged him to tap into the power of manifestation. “They said, ‘Jordan, put your hand on that doorknob and manifest the vision of you opening a restaurant there,’” he adds. “I’m very skeptical of these things, so I told him straight up, you’re both crazy. But sure, no problem.”
Fast forward several years: Flip Sigi, Andino’s fast casual “Filipino taqueria,” had ramped up and opened additional locations in Chicago and New Jersey, and the entrepreneurial chef began eyeing his next project. After serving up $12 burritos, Andino was ready to offer his network a more upscale experience. So he linked up with longtime industry friend Phil Testa to open a full-service restaurant, with the backing of celebrity investors including New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, The Roots MC Black Thought, and Dale Moss.
“I went, ‘I know the exact right place [for the restaurant],'” says Andino. “I looked back over, the space was still for sale, two years later. As they like to say, the rest is history.”
The menu at Carriage House is New American with global influences, inspired by Andino’s Southeast Asian heritage and experience cooking at restaurants including French Laundry and Harlow East in the Hamptons. Dishes include Wagyu skirt steak, marinated peri peri chicken, and tagliatelle with truffle. Dinner service begins with bread accompanied by a seasonal “butter candle,” lit and melted at each table. The opening flavor is rosemary and sage with lemon and cinnamon; ramp butter is up next.
“I would describe it as global cuisine through the lens of a New Yorker,” says Andino, who was born in Toronto and grew up in Southern California before landing back on the East Coast. “I’m taking my international travels and all that inspiration, coupled with all of my inspiration from the restaurants and businesses that I travel to here in the five boroughs.”
The dining room was designed by Functional Creative Design, and the interiors pay homage to the space’s legacy as a working carriage house. They kept original wood detailing and archways throughout the intimate space. The room seats around 50, almost half of those at the marbletop bar, and the team notes they opted for fewer tables in order to give guests extra space.
In addition to his experience working in various kitchens, Andino has established himself as a TV personality on the recent Netflix series “Cook at All Costs” and various Food Network programs, including “Beat Bobby Flay.” Andino might not have won that competition, but during opening weekend he was able to serve the celebrity chef at Carriage House, a full-circle moment. “We had some bites and words at the bar, and it was just surreal,” says Andino.
After various opening delays, he’s excited to continue welcoming diners into the space he first fell in love with four years ago.
“On grand opening night I was fighting back tears pretty much every hour,” he says. “When you hear the hum and the quick clanking of cutlery in plates and people laughing, and that energy fills a whole room, you just can’t help but be grateful, appreciative, excited, nervous, and unapologetically happy and elated.”
Launch Gallery: Inside Carriage House in the West Village
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