SOUTH WILLIAMSBURG — A new restaurant at Kent Avenue features two high-heat wood-burning ovens with temperatures so high, they can bake a whole chicken in less than seven minutes.
Cow and Clover, located at 291 Kent Ave., plans to use the stone ovens to prepare its menu of American food made with ingredients sourced from local farms — including whole piri piri chicken and fruits and veggies for its cocktails.
"Everything is centered around the oven," said co-owner Randall Williams. "When you have such high intense heat, it seals in those juices and locks those flavors. Getting that balance matters. We got it down pat."
While the restaurant does have one pizza-like flatbread appetizer on its menu, the owners said they wanted to redirect the wood-fired oven to be more than just a platform for pizza.
Cooking other dishes with a wood-fired oven is an old technique that Cow and Clover chef Morgan Shofield, who used to work at Blue Hill, knows how to do well, Williams said.
The dishes, which range from $8 to $25, feature locally sourced tomatoes, mussels and pork from farms like Pennsylvania's Eckerton Hill Farm and New York State's Flying Pigs Farm.
Cow and Clover plans to experiment with adding roasted ingredients to drinks, too, like roasted pineapples for margaritas and roasted jalapenos for infusing into cocktails, he added.
Eventually, they'd like to take the concept to other locations, he added.
"We want to transport this same philosophy to anywhere in the country," Williams said.
Cow and Clover opened on Friday and is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
In other North Brooklyn restaurant news:
► Bushwick bar Forrest Point officially opened last Thursday at 970 Flushing Ave.
From the people who opened the popular 983 Bushwick's Living Room, Forrest Point serves food like chicken fried oysters, rock shrimp lettuce wraps and seared tuna with duck fried rice.
The bar with extensive outdoor space also serves eight different cocktails and two types of milk punch. A menu can be seen here.
► Two Mexican restaurants have opened up in Bushwick in recent weeks.
New Santa Ana Restaurant, 187 Irving Ave., offers an extensive menu of platters, burritos, seafood, burgers and fajitas. Prices range from $2.50 for a soup to $15.95 for a steak topped with black beans, shrimp and mole poblano sauce.
The restaurant offers free delivery seven days a week.
And farther north at 156 Knickerbocker Ave., 156 Tex Mex Mexican Restaurant offers Mexican food for dinner and lunch, including huevos rancheros, flautas and carne asada.
It also offers veggie plates, organic juices and smoothies. 156 Tex Mex delivers for free and is open Monday to Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight.
