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You’ll find New Zealand snapper, pink sea trout from Tasmania, and New Zealand venison served with ginger-glazed carrots, all served in a swank, oddly themed setting designed to evoke public institutions like schools and libraries. The two-level room used to be a bakery, and the proprietors have put in sliding industrial doors and hung trendy filament bulbs along the ceiling. Swatches of what appears to be cheesecloth cover the wine rack, and oil lamps line one of the brick walls. A wooden library-card catalogue has been placed by the coat check, and the menus are presented on clipboards and stamped like office order forms. Happily, this oddly forced décor is transcended, for the most part, by the cooking of the American-born, London-trained chef, Brad Farmerie. Australasian cuisine, as he defines it, is an agreeable mishmash of American structure (everything’s arranged in a Portale tower), farm-fresh ingredients, and global (mostly Southeast Asian) spices and tastes. That includes an inventive kangaroo dish (cut in slivers, arranged on crisp falafel cake, and crowned with a spoonful of tangy green-pepper relish) accompanied by a nourishing bowl of parsnip soup flavored, in the Indian style, with cumin and coriander, plus a rogue sprinkling of dried barberries. — Adam Platt

Extra

Try visiting Public for the superior weekend brunch, which includes novel delicacies like coconut-stuffed pancakes and a fine version of eggs Benedict made with tea-smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce flavored with yuzu.

Weddings
This recently renovated restaurant in the heart of Nolita features a “free-spirited fusion” menu and can host sit-down receptions for up to 125. Public can also be the site of the ceremony, with a lounge–cum–dressing room, and a picture window looking onto the Elizabeth Street Garden. Prices upon request.

Recommended Dishes

Grilled scallops, $15

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (2/9/04)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Brunch for Design Geeks (2007)

Recipes at Public

• Green Almonds With Chile Salt (2007)