Theodora’s Cooking Can’t Be Pinned Down

According to a neighbor, wafts of fenugreek hang over a stretch of Fort Greene’s Dekalb Avenue, courtesy of the local favorite Miss Ada. “You can smell it a mile away,” he said. Fenugreek’s seeds and seed paste, licorice-y and lightly bitter, crop up in Armenian, Moroccan, Iraqi, Ethiopian, and Turkish cuisine and sometimes as part of a za’atar blend. That neighbor, nose piqued, recognized it in an instant at Theodora, Miss Ada’s new sister restaurant on Greene Avenue, lost somewhere in a tuna crudo on brick-colored lavash, by flavor if not by name. It took some sleuthing, and a friendly server, to identify it. Was it the faint sourdough tang of the lavash itself, the wasabi spiking the garnish of Japanese tobiko, the creamy brushstroke of crème fraîche, the tropical bloom of mango — actually mango pickled in amba, an Iraqi condiment (now also popular in India), made from green mangoes, vinegar, chile, and … well, there it is.

If I linger over this dither, it’s for good reason. The fenugreek locates Theodora’s pan-Mediterranean leanings, but even more, it marks out what makes chef Tomer Blechman’s cooking so appealing. During my meals, dishes were so confidently layered with flavor that I often struggled to pinpoint exactly what spoke to me in any given bite. Some hidden spice, an imported rub, the smoke and char on just about everything that comes from cooking over hardwood. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t care. I kept eating.

Blechman’s Israeli heritage — he came to the U.S. to study Shiatsu massage and acupuncture, of all things, before finding his way into the kitchens of Maialino, Gramercy Tavern, and Lupa — is evident in the breads (pita, seeded laffa, a nuzzling quartet of pull-apart snail-shell rolls called kubaneh) and in dishes like a spare trio of unusually delicious falafel. But the guidance is lighter here than at Miss Ada and the range is wider, more ambitiously various. (The falafel — green as moss inside — is dotted with Thai curry and galangal.) In time, Theodora could settle into being a neighborhood standby, as Miss Ada has, but at the moment, it feels like a destination. It’s priced like one: Miss Ada’s whole branzino is $58; Theodora’s, $72.

Those of us around long enough to remember No. 7, an early entrant to the foodie strip of then-gentrifying Fort Greene, may barely recognize the space, tucked behind a C-train station. No. 7 was dark and pubby where Theodora is bright and airy, pale-plastered, plant-lined, more Silver Lake woo-woo. The menu, too, is broadly familiar. “Like every other Brooklyn restaurant, everything is designed to be shared,” our server told us with a laugh: a few crudos, a chicory salad, the requisite half-chicken, that whole branzino.

What sets Theodora apart is its attention to detail and preparation. The specialty of the house is fish — there are fish on the walls, fish on the server’s garb, fish doodled on the menu — and Blechman dry-ages his seafood like steak. Hulking king salmon and hiramasa hang from hooks in a glass-fronted case opposite the bar. Will the dry aging of fish catch on? I’ve noticed it showing up on menus around town in the past few months — at Moono, at Il Totano — and it allows for tender meat and, more noticeable, an unmatched crisp skin. Our branzino arrived deep, crunchy brown, as if it had been fried, beneath its glaze of garlicky salmoriglio.

Over the course of a full meal, you may find yourself hankering for anything that hasn’t been kissed by flame, a tower of which is clearly, even distressingly, visible in the open kitchen. “I’m a little desensitized to the char at this point,” one of my companions whispered as we sawed our way through the noble fish. I wasn’t sure the sesame-studded laffa bread — a sort of pita relative — needed charry eggplant, or that the very tender octopus was all that improved by its sweet-burnt shallot purée. All of that to say don’t skip the crudo, a cool, tart, and welcome complement. That tuna with mango pickle, good. The hiramasa, in a sour, lactic tie-dye of finger lime and pickled serrano, even better. Next time I’ll skip the chocolate cake and get an order for dessert.

Matthew Schneier , 2024-05-30 14:00:19

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