Small Bites

Chef Carl Lasely, who formerly cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, will be the chef at the new Sweet Grass Grill in Tarrytown. The restaurant is set to open by the end of the year.

Lasely, who was a vegetable cook and meat entremetier (that means entre-maker) at Blue Hill, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He was raised in North Carolina, and worked in restaurants there, too, including as sous chef of Cypress International Cuisine in Asheville.

He plans to serve comfort foods “without being chicken pot pie.” He’s thinking ingredient-driven cuisine with plenty of fresh vegetables. “It’s food that people can sit down and enjoy,” he says. “It’s casual but with an inventive twist. Everything they’re eating will be flavors they’re familiar with, but presented in new and exciting ways.”

For instance, he’ll do braised turkey legs, roasted salmon, baby roasted chicken. The restaurant is named for the type of grass that buffalo were raised on in the Great Plains, so he may do a buffalo burger, and he’s also tossing around the idea of a veggie burger.

“I want  to offer food that everybody is  going to feel comfortable ordering,” he says.

Fall Restaurant Preview: Sweet Grass Grill. (Small Bites.)