New York Restaurant Aims to Make Peri Peri Chicken Better Than Nando's
Doris remembers loving Nando's as a kid, but when she returned as an adult, she thought, ''Yeah, this is not as good as it used to be,' and I tell people there are better places.' For peri peri chicken, the meat is marinated in a sauce made out of the namesake pepper, also known as bird's eye chile, resulting in a burst of spicy and tangy flavors. She knew she had to add her own take to the menu because, 'I want to just stop everyone asking about what it's like and just show them what it is,' she says. The restaurant's version is a deboned half-chicken doused in peri peri marinade and served with a side salad and a single crispy little chicken wing ($36).
Doris has spent time in kitchens in Normandy, Spain, and London. She moved to New York in 2016 to join the Nomad team, where she met Haymarket co-owner Alex Pfaffenbach. She also spent time at the then-Saga Hospitality, now-Kent Hospitality restaurants such as Crown Shy and the two-Michelin-starred Saga, which she joined in 2019 and worked her way up to executive chef. But then, it was time for her to open her own restaurant.
Haymarket has 'this very unique perspective on European food, but seen through the lens of someone who grew up in a Caribbean household,' says Pfaffenbach. He's the former director of development of the hospitality company Quality Branded and had worked at Eleven Madison Park. He also owns Upper East Side bar Lucille's.
The 75-seat, 2,200 square-foot Haymarket has a 15-seat bar in the center and includes lots of greens and burnt oranges, from the chairs to the banquette. The walls feature a custom-paneled mural by Nashville artist Charlotte Terrel, displaying English and Hudson Valley countryside scenes. Doris and Pfaffenbach will also open an unnamed-for-now basement bar at the same address in late July.
The menu is divided by snacks, appetizers, pastas and grains, entrees, and desserts, a collection that Doris describes as 'a bit spicy, a bit bolder.' It's a reflection of how she ate growing up and traveling around the world. 'I've collected all these things and I just put my twist on it,' she says.'The flavors are a bit deeper, and it's just like how I would eat it.'
Outside of the roasted peri peri chicken, the rest of Haymarket's menu reflects Doris's English-Caribbean-New York food sensibilities. There are salt cod fritters, another ode to her grandmother, who often made salt cod; lamb and mushroom skewers, her version of the kebabs that Londoners are so fond of; and braised oxtail with oxtail jus and crispy cheddar cheese polenta.
The dessert menu is short and simple, reminding Doris of childhood treats. It features a layered mango-coconut-lime pudding made with a mango and lime gelee, a mango and young coconut relish, rum syrup-soaked crisps, creme patisserie, and shaved young coconut. 'It's like a proper pudding,' she says, with trifle vibes, too. There's also the strawberry cheesecake Swiss roll and the mocha creme caramel, where the mocha sauce is poured at the table.
Kent Hospitality bar alum Chris Figueroa is running the cocktail program. He had worked at Saga, Crown Shy, and Overstory, and was one of Punch's Best New Bartender finalists in 2024. The menu includes the Tall & Crisp section, with options like the Hay Barbie, an egg white sour cocktail with mezcal, aquavit, cachaça, pickled beets, ginger, and saffron; and the Stirred & Bold category includes the Cafe du Bois, an Old Fashioned with brandy, bourbon, scotches, coffee and maraschino liqueurs, and a cacao nib tuile garnish.
Figueroa will also oversee the drinks at Haymarket's forthcoming bar later this summer. While the team fine-tunes the details, Pfaffenbach explains that it'll serve as Figueroa's 'true love letter to New York City bars and his experiences as a born-and-raised New Yorker.'
Pfaffenbach is a fan of New York history and decided on the name Haymarket after the 19th-century dance hall in Manhattan. 'Because it was [in] the Tenderloin district in the 1890s, it was not the most savory place, but everyone came from Fifth Avenue to party, they came from the tenement area to party,' he says. 'Everyone from all stripes coming together in this part of town to enjoy themselves.' There's also the connection to the famous London district of the same name.
With Doris and Pfaffenbach's fine-dining backgrounds, they want Haymarket to be fun and hospitable. 'You can have this beautiful seamless experience with this really thoughtful food, but be in this raucous dinner party atmosphere,' he says. 'I think that's the way we think about it: a raucous yet precise dinner party.' See More:
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