1. The menu leans into wood fire cooking and charcoal grilling.
Explaining the food at Humm is “very easy, but also complicated,” says Magi. “We call ourselves modern American.” Much of the menu is cooked in a towering wood fire oven that greets guests as they enter the dining room or on a charcoal grill, so you get the smell of fire during the meal. “It’s soulful — [and] very simple, in a certain way,” Magi adds. Think housemade rigatoni with a pomodoro sauce that took 10 trials to dial in.
Unlike Eleven Madison Park, which focuses on a seasonal tasting menu, the à la carte one here is more fluid, changing slightly based on the ingredients available from Magic Farms, which supplies EMP, and those at the farmers market. Expect vegetable dishes like eggplant Milanese with green tomato and cucumber, and baked sweet potatoes with pickled red onion and Calabrian chile.
For proteins, there’s charcoal grilled branzino sourced from Spain and Brigette’s roasted chicken for two, named after Humm’s mother. Despite some speculation about whether Humm would serve the legendary foie gras-stuffed chicken from The NoMad, the team opted for a rendition that’s a touch lighter here. Brioche and parmesan are tucked under the skin of the bird, and the chicken is seasoned with lemon, and thyme.
In a nod to the city, there’s also the caviar bagel, a miniature bagel-shaped milk bread (don’t expect it to have the chew of a typical bagel) stacked high with osetra caviar. And, to end dinner, there’s a riff on milk and honey, a combination both Humm and Magi were raised on and have featured at other restaurants. Here, it’s presented as a milk soft-serve sundae with white chocolate-covered oat shortbread, fresh honeycomb, buckwheat honey from Andrew’s Honey, bee pollen, and dehydrated milk foam.
Dining and Cooking