7Eleven Gallery

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Jack’s Wife Freda sounds like a character in a Barry Levinson film or maybe a Bernard Malamud novel. Instead, it’s a spiffy new Soho café, where the husband-and-wife owners have drawn on their New York restaurant backgrounds and their family histories to bring appealing new flavor to an urban archetype. Before they met while working at Balthazar, Dean Jankelowitz and his future wife, Maya, emigrated from South Africa and Israel, respectively. Together, they’ve created a hospitable hangout with the understated style and savvy all-day service that one associates with their old boss, Keith McNally, only infused with their warm, welcoming personalities and foods that remind them of home. (Jack and Freda were Dean’s grandparents.) The combination has already proved something of a hit, if rollicking brunch and late-night crowds are any indication. The clientele, young and stylish almost to a fault, seem to have fallen off the runway from some downtown fashion show and straight into the cozy café’s leather banquettes. To witness these lissome waifs and Greek gods with their high-octane metabolisms pack it away—presumably with zero repercussions to their tiny waistlines—was almost enough to put the Underground Gourmet off our feed. That would have been a shame. The food at Jack’s Wife Freda, you see, is homey, delicious, and wonderfully satisfying.

 

 

If you were going to give it a long and unwieldy name, it might be South African Israeli Jewish Grandmother Cuisine, and there’s no better introduction to it than Freda’s fried fish balls. Here are five bite-size fritters made from smoked whitefish and hake, finely ground and panko-crusted, then deep-fried to a crisp and served with horseradish aïoli. It’s gefilte fish for the McNugget set. Equally snackable are the “peri-peri” giblets, a South African shout-out via braised and fried chicken livers and gizzards seasoned with chiles that grow there; thick rounds of fried zucchini to dunk in smoked-paprika aïoli; and a toothsome slab of char-grilled haloumi cheese, garnished with grapes and tiny toasts. Freda’s matzo-ball soup is a soothing house specialty, and the Greek salad is constructed, as are an increasing number of winter salads these days, with crunchy fresh kale.

 

 

The Jankelowitzes always worked front of the house, which might be why they seem to know four out of every five customers who cross the threshold and to greet them with kisses and bear hugs. It’s also why they enlisted Employees Only chef Julia Jaksic to consult on the menu and bring their specific culinary notions to life. Sandwiches and entrées are tweaked just enough to keep things interesting: Sliced skirt steak is tucked into a Portuguese bun in the diminutive “Prego roll,” and the flattened crisp-skinned half-chicken can be ordered peri-peri style. Even a seemingly unsauced heap of orecchiette that looks like it was designed for a small convalescent child turns out to be full of good, cheesy, garlicky flavor. The real sleeper on the menu, though, is a burger built along the lines of the Shake Shack model, but with a slightly heftier patty. It comes on a Martin’s potato bun with tomato, a few tobacco-style fried onions, and a gaggle of meaty hand-cut fries. Order it with melted Gruyère and you have the best burger in Soho.

 

 

You’ll find the burger on the daytime menu, too, along with an assortment of breakfast dishes offered until late afternoon. The poached eggs come with haloumi and grilled tomato, the soft-boiled ones with challah “soldiers,” and the house shakshuka, a Middle Eastern baked-egg dish, wears a cloak of tomatillo sauce in place of the standard red tomato-pepper stew. Rather than Greek yogurt, rich, tangy Lebanese labneh is topped with granola and grapefruit segments. (That labneh also graces a sensational fruit crisp for dessert.) Late weekday mornings, in fact, might be the best time to enjoy the simple pleasures of Jack’s Wife Freda, with sunlight streaming through the French doors, room to spread out, and a cup of Stumptown coffee. You might pair it with a “Zucker rose,” a chocolate rolled pastry sourced, in classic Jewish-diaspora fashion, from an Israeli baker recently ensconced on East 9th Street.

7Eleven Gallery invites you to an event this Friday, February 10th

 

Featuring "Alchemy" artist Nick Doyle who will be giving FREE tattoos with his artist-made tattoo kit

 

 

 

Come by from 7-10pm for refreshments and some ink

 

And to see "Alchemy" before the exhibition closes February 18th!

 

Watch a live feed of the action on 7elevengallery.com during the event

 

 

7Eleven Gallery invites you to Alchemy, a group exhibition

 

January 12th - February 18th, 2012

 

Opening Reception: January 12th, 6 - 9 pm 

 

At our previous location: 711 Washington Street, New York, NY 10014

 

Featuring works by:

 

Thomas Beale, Lucas Blalock, Nick Doyle, Adam Fuss, GAINES, Elissa Goldstone, Eve Andrée Laramée, Eva Lewitt, Dylan Lynch, Thomas McDonell, Casey Neistat, Lesley Raeside, Jason Reppert, Alex Rickard, Keith Sonnier, Michael St. John, William Stone, John Torreano, Rob Wynne

 

Curated by Sabrina Blaichman, Caroline Copley & Genevieve Hudson-Price

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

I had discovered, early in my researches, that their doctrine was no mere chemical fantasy, but a philosophy they applied to the world, to the elements, and to man himself; and that they sought to fashion gold out of common metals merely as part of an universal transmutation of all things into some divine and imperishable substance; and this enabled me to make my little book a fanciful reverie over the transmutation of life into art, and a cry of measureless desire for a world made wholly of essences. - W.B. Yeats, Rosa Alchemica

 

7Eleven Gallery is pleased to announce “Alchemy”, a group exhibition, running from January 12th – February 18th at 711 Washington Street in the West Village. The exhibition features artists Thomas Beale, Lucas Blalock, Nick Doyle, Adam Fuss, GAINES, Elissa Goldstone, Eve Andrée Laramée, Eva Lewitt, Dylan Lynch, Thomas McDonell, Casey Neistat, Lesley Raeside, Jason Reppert, Alex Rickard, Keith Sonnier, Michael St. John, William Stone and Rob Wynne.

The most common definition of alchemy is the process of turning base metals into gold. Over the years it has also been interpreted, metaphorically, as the transmutation of materials into a higher form; scientifically, as a study of compounds and matter; religiously and mystically, as the union of man and the divine for the goal of achieving a level of perfect balance on a quest for the greater refinement of self.

 

These interpretations were the inspiration behind the work of the eighteen artists featured in 7Eleven Galleryʼs “Alchemy.” The making of art is alchemy. Artists have the ability to transmute ordinary objects into extraordinary works, giving new meaning to their previous purpose. The artists featured in this exhibition seized this power.

 

Many of the works directly reference alchemy, while others imply it. Some deal with elements found in nature and their transformation into art; others use science to create natural forms, such as light. Materials found in everyday life are distorted into various structures, which transcend their original significance. Nature, science, mysticism and the altering of common items give a sense of enchantment and wonder to the overall exhibition.

 

This exhibition was curated by Sabrina Blaichman, Caroline Copley and Genevieve Hudson- Price. 7Eleven is a nomadic art gallery first opened in the Summer of 2008 in the West Village. After two group shows in a warehouse in Chelsea, including 2010ʼs “Make Yourself At Home” featuring seventy-six artists, the gallery has found its way back to the West Village. 7Eleven is dedicated to showcasing the work of young and emerging artists as well as the more established of the art world.

 

For more information visit 7elevengallery.com

 

For press inquiries contact press@7elevengallery.com