A tour of Distilled in Tribeca

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January 29, 2015- By Steven E. Greer

I was invited to stop by the 18-month-old Distilled in Tribeca. This is the first restaurant for the young duo of Nick Iovacchini and Chef Shane Lyons. Behind the scenes, they are mentored by restaurant legend Drew Nieporent (ala Nobu, Tribeca Grill, Montrachet, Croton, and now Batard), who owns the site.

Chef Lyons grew up with parents as chefs, did some child acting, and went to work for David Chang at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Along the way, he won some TV competitions on “The Next Food Network Star”.

Distilled is a comfort food restaurant with a lounge that aims to please sophisticated TriBeCans. Flavored popcorn is a signature snack at the bar and served to diners as well.

The waiters and bartenders make a good effort to deliver excellent hospitality. The head bartender (wearing black in the photo) personally delivered a drink to us on the other side of the restaurant.

Chef Lyons has created several unique menu items, such as the crispy duck over a waffle, Korean fried chicken wings, and the large cheeseburger.

He also serves several more sophisticated French favorites, such as Liver Pâté and steak tartare with marinated boiled quail eggs.

The dessert menu is plentiful with TriBeCan twists on American classics, such as s’mores or oatmeal cream pies.

Overall, our first impression of Distilled is that it has a lot of promise. The space is well suited for a lounge with good outdoor seating. The prices are not cheap, but still appropriate for “casual” (unlike so many places now trying to charge $40 for a casual meal). The bar seemed to be fun and we will have to loiter there some more at a later date.