At abc kitchens, Sustainability Starts at the Table

Walking into abc kitchens feels different from most New York restaurants. Sunlight spills across reclaimed wood tables. Vegetables arrive looking almost sculptural. The room feels warm, textured, buzzing with life. Less like a restaurant designed around trends and more like one built around intention.

The food at abc kitchens is rooted in seasonal ingredients, clean sourcing, and bold simplicity. The menu moves easily between vibrant vegetable-forward dishes, sustainably sourced seafood, wood-fired preparations, fresh pastas, and globally inspired small plates designed for sharing. You’ll find everything from roasted carrots with yogurt and spicy crunch to crab toast, market fish, handmade pizzas, bright grain salads, and beautifully composed oyster and raw bar offerings. The cooking feels refined without being overly formal—ingredient-driven food that’s colorful, layered, and unmistakably part of modern New York culture. 

Chef Ayaka Guido brings a thoughtful, ingredient-first approach to abc kitchens, shaped by both precision and restraint. Her cooking reflects the restaurant’s larger philosophy: seasonal ingredients, clean flavors, and food that feels deeply connected to where it came from. With a focus on balance, texture, and simplicity, Chef Ayaka helps shape a menu that feels vibrant and modern while remaining grounded in sustainability and care for the sourcing behind every dish.

That has always been central to abc kitchens and founder, Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s, approach to food. Long before “farm-to-table” became standard restaurant language, abc kitchens was already building menus around seasonality, sourcing transparency, and ingredients grown with care for both people and the environment.

At the heart of the restaurant is a belief that food choices carry consequences beyond the plate. Ingredients are sourced with a focus on non-GMO farms, responsible land use, reduced pesticide exposure, and environmentally conscious growing practices. The team continuously evaluates vendors and sourcing methods while pushing toward cleaner, more sustainable systems throughout the restaurant group.

But what makes abc kitchens stand out is how naturally those values show up in the experience itself. You taste it in the vegetables. In the seafood, especially the way the oysters are prepared. In the simplicity of dishes that don’t need much embellishment because the ingredients already speak loudly on their own. The food feels connected to where it came from. That same philosophy is part of why abc kitchens partners with Billion Oyster Project through our shell recycling program.

At the restaurant, oysters arrive beautifully plated, cold and bright against crushed ice and citrus. But the story keeps going once dinner is over. The shells collected at abc kitchens are recycled and returned to New York Harbor, where they become the foundation for new oyster reefs across the city.

For us, partnerships like this matter because they show how restoration can become part of everyday culture in New York. A night out for oysters can also contribute to rebuilding habitat and strengthening the harbor ecosystem. Not to mention reconnecting people to the waterways surrounding the city. It’s a natural fit for a restaurant already thinking deeply about sustainability, sourcing, and environmental responsibility.

At abc kitchens, care exists at every layer. From the farms growing produce to the shells returning to the harbor. The restaurant is an example. Sustainability can feel warm and inviting. It can be beautiful. Shared around a crowded table in the middle of Manhattan. And in a city built by its waterways, that connection matters. 

Want to eat at abc kitchens? Book a reservation now!