Camille Becerra’s ‘De Maria’ Reboot Replaces Ken & Cook this Weekend
Four years after its debut, Ken & Cook quietly called it quits. The Lower East Side nightspot, at the corner of the Bowery and Kenmare Street, closed for renovations during the holiday season. A winter remodeling that netted an ownership (and kitchen) shakeup. De Maria is the result, importing creative director Grace Lee and former Top Chef contestant Camille Becerra as chef. (Sab Sharma is still part of the team, too.)
The De Maria reboot – likely to garner the launch spotlight – is slated to bow this weekend (January 14).
Its obligatory basement club, The Lø, meanwhile, is currently serving in soft-open mode. And has been for weeks. The swanky speakeasy replaces, nay, follows in the footsteps of Lil Charlie’s, which was essentially forced closed by the State Liquor Authority in 2014.
Becerra, the former owner of Brooklyn’s Paloma, last worked these parts as kitchen-head in conjunction with APL. You remember – that disaster of a restaurant on Orchard Street some six years ago. It was a pre-launch implosion; she parted ways before the joint even opened.
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