Red Farm is in Countdown to Opening after Inspectors say A-ok

          With all inspections passed and permissions completed -- the final approvals came yesterday -- Red Farm at 2170 Broadway is now in countdown to opening. “We plan to open slowly (and quietly) sometime in late August for friends and family,” owner Ed Schoenfeld has said.

          It will be open for lunch/brunch everyday with both dim sum and other dishes. Take-out and delivery will start later. The menu will feature classics from RedFarm at 591 Hudson Street plus new whimsies in the theme of brilliantly inauthentic Chinese cooking.

          The lights reading Red Farm went up in the window on June 14. Inspectors were still milling around last week and Schoenfeld was interviewing for staff when I snapped the photo above.

          The bright blond room pays respect to the funky little farmhouse downtown with red and white checked banquettes, only more of them, and clean whitewashed piping with hanging lights instead of chopsticks and menus on plumbing works. The two rooms seat 79 and there will be 28 seats in a sidewalk café when permissions come through.

          “I’ve opened 52 restaurants in my time,” Schoenfeld said, “and normally, you work out your menus and food costs a few months ahead so you can price things.  But that’s not how Joe does it.” 

          Joe is the brilliant chef and wizard of dim sum, chef and partner here with Schoenfeld, and their financial partners, the Chodorows, father and son. Eddie stood in the shiny new kitchen, lifted a wok, still in its plastic wrapper and shrugged. He showed off a spotless, newly installed, $10,000 apparatus just for dumplings and shrugged. “It’s a Cheung Fung stove.” He showed me a shot of Ng’s Hello Kitty dumplings on his cell phone.

          Meanwhile the Laundromat under the 44-seat Hudson Street flagship has been opened to accommodate more customers at the communal table, the bar and a single two top. It will reopen as Decoy in October specializing in Peking duck and cocktails to go with Asian flavors. Dinner will star a set menu of cooked-to-order Peking duck with a modern twist. Late night bar snacks, available till 1:30 am, will include Peking duck burgers, lobster tartare and wontons yet to be imagined.

Red Farm 2170 Broadway. 212 724 9700

Red Farm 529 Hudson Street. 212 792 9700

Decoy 529 ½ Hudson Street 212 691 9700

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