The chef Marcus Samuelsson, who was born in Ethiopia, raised by an adoptive family in Sweden, and made famous as the executive chef at Aquavit, in midtown, is madly in love with Harlem. He moved there in 2005, “from a swanky but soulless place in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to a swanky and soulful brownstone apartment,” he wrote in his 2012 memoir, “Yes, Chef.” The neighborhood, he was delighted to realize, “was not just black U.S.A. in a snow globe; it was one of the last bastions of New York City as creative people long for it to be.” In 2010, he opened Red Rooster, a swanky and soulful restaurant on Lenox Avenue, and began to establish himself as Harlem’s veritable mayor, enticing local regulars—including, especially, the creative élite—plus visiting V.I.P.s and celebrity-chasing tourists, with an elegantly global menu, effortlessly combining the flavors of the American South, Ethiopia, Sweden, and beyond.
This spring, Samuelsson doubled down on his community outreach and introduced Streetbird, a more casual venture with an emphasis on rotisserie chicken, eaten in or taken out. If, with Red Rooster, Samuelsson tread gingerly as he sought acceptance from the object of his affection, he’s confident enough now to shout his adoration from the rooftops. The new place is a lively, endearing but painfully unsubtle homage to Harlem through the decades, from the graffiti on the rafters to the sneakers dangling from the sprinkler system and the booths upholstered in Louis Vuitton and Gucci leather.
The menu, too, is a riot of references: red-velvet waffles and chicken, Return of the Mac (and cheese). But what comes out of the kitchen tends to fall short of its promise. The glossy-skinned rotisserie chicken is proficient but ultimately unspecial. The Sho’ Nuff Noodles are an overly faithful ode to take-out lo mein, and the crispy chicken in another vaguely Chinese dish called Mama Said Wok You Out is less exciting than your average General Tso’s. Two salads—the Fly Girl and the Grace Jonezz—turn out to be indistinguishable heaps of shredded and underdressed lettuce. If the lesson seems to be that Harlem can’t be bottled, there’s a certain irony to the fact that Streetbird’s condiments are a bright spot, particularly the sweet and spicy Jamerican sauce and the Bird Funk Spread, an oily paste of Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, and fermented black bean, which comes with Auntie’s Cornbread. The best dish—the Swediopian, a sort of boat made from spongy Ethiopian injera bread filled with tender, vinegary collards, the hearty Ethiopian chicken stew known as doro wat, creamy curds of fresh cheese, and crumbles of hard-boiled egg—is the most creative. What could represent Harlem better than that?
Open daily for lunch and dinner. Dishes $7-$16.
