What does it take to make a dream come true?
Sometimes, it takes the crossing of continents, the changing of jobs and the opening and closing of a business to make a dream come true. And a deep and mutual immersion for several decades in the world of food, wine and travel helps materialize the dream as well. Mix in a magical suggestion from a mum who proposed her son tag an affirmation on the fridge—one that reflects the literal marriage of like minds in order to amplify each other’s goals. On a practical level, too, it’s useful when you’ve been steadfastly stashing the empty bottles of every notable wine you’ve ever enjoyed so you’re ready to adorn that dream space when it appears. And that place deserves a fitting name, one that aptly captures the culmination of all that came before it, and all that is yet to come, too.
Enter Kabinett Wine Bar & Garden.
Kabinett is the culmination of a lifelong dream of husband-and-wife team Jason Hoy and Melanie Hansche. You might remember them as the Australian couple behind Tucker at the Silk Mill, which they ran for five years before closing in early 2022 in order to pivot toward the development of Kabinett. The concept itself goes back many years and, Hansche says, “It’s a name Jason’s been knocking around in his head for a long time.”
“It’s where the most special wine is held. It’s also easy to remember and easy to say,” says Hoy.
But Kabinett isn’t just a physical space, it’s also an off-dry style of riesling.
“I love that it speaks to our favorite grape, which is so versatile it grows well in both Germany and Australia. As a native German, I also love its double meaning—as a small, cozy place where winemakers stashed their special bottles for themselves. We aim to share all our bottles with everyone, of course!” says Hansche.
The name feels apt, as the pair have made it their mission to bring amazing wines that you likely haven’t had before, along with a globally inspired menu. Kabinett will likely give restaurants in bigger cities (and with deeper staffs) a serious run for their money. It’s an understatement to say that they know what they’re doing here, but let’s back it up for a minute.
Hansche has a remarkable career in food and wine editorial (she’s literally the deputy editor for that magazine), which has afforded her an enviable range of culinary experiences that inform their thinking about running restaurants. It’s fair to say the genesis of Kabinett began some 30 years ago, when Hoy was 18 and long before Hansche entered the picture. He was working in wine stores and just fell in love with it. Through his 20s and onward, he developed a reputation for not only making them look great but selling lots of wine, too. He learned as much as he could, traveled all over Europe and soaked up even more. In the meantime, Hansche’s career in food media was skyrocketing (Google the name Donna Hay; Hansche worked for her) and her trajectory landed them in the United States in 2014 when she accepted the job as executive director of food content and strategy at Rodale (now owned by Hearst). They packed up everything, including those scores of bottles Hoy had been saving, along with corks, too. “I’m a hoarder,” he jokes.
He’s not, really. He (and Hansche) just repeatedly took specific, intentional steps toward his dreams for many years. That’s what makes things happen, but keeping your goals very visible helps. We’re talking about the affirmation Hoy’s mom suggested many years ago, which lived on their fridge in Australia: “Mel has the magazine job of her dreams in New York, and Jason has the wine bar of his dreams in Brooklyn.”
“My mom’s a bit of a hippie,” he says, with a chuckle. We’ll overlook the fact that Easton isn’t Brooklyn, despite what people say, and that Rodale’s roots are in Emmaus and, later, also New York. These are minor technicalities. It’s all come to fruition. Kabinett is alive and well.
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There’s even a kabinett in the dining room, too, one which emits this magical, work-in-progress vibe wherein one door leads to another. “It feels a bit like Narnia at the moment,” says Hoy. The further you move from the front door, the more you encounter these labyrinthine elements of surprise. So much awaits. A wine bottle shop next door comes next, which will beget a selective yet comprehensive grocery store experience with creative, socially conscious brands, lots of local produce and so forth. Think of it sort of like Tucker on steroids, an assessment Hoy agrees with. “We will sell things we believe in, one or two brands per product type, tops,” he says.
Keep ambling through this former garage space, and you’ll be met with a door that will ultimately lead to an outdoor wine garden with river views, adorned with a couple of pergolas and supported by a second kitchen. Pending the customary hurdles to completion, the rest should ideally be ready to open by summer. It’s definitely an ambitious project. In terms of scale? The entire operation is about the size of the Easton Public Market, says Hoy.
As Hansche describes it, she says Kabinett is about bringing “something wholly new and fun to Easton that’s also deeply personal: a beautifully designed, wine-forward restaurant that captures our Aussie and German backgrounds and sensibilities; a place that’s delicious, glamorous and cheeky in equal measure,” she says.
Much of that is evident upon arrival—at least via its design and menu. Design can make or break the experience and it seems increasingly rare to find a restaurant that feels like a portal: it’s that feeling when you walk into a restaurant and instantly feel transported into someone else’s welcoming and specific vision. In this case, it’s a warm, classy Art Deco-inspired space with repurposed elements from Tucker’s interior and soundproofing so effective you can actually have a conversation. Naturally, Hoy’s bottle collection proudly rings the dining room.
The vision is consistently transcendent, all the way down to the menu design (a kabinett “handle”) and even the bathroom. No one wants to walk into a bathroom that arrests the experience by neglecting to carry through the dining room’s thoughtfully appointed aesthetic, thereby reminding you why you’re in there. No, the bathrooms at Kabinett are swanky.
But enough about the bathrooms. Let’s talk about the food and wine. So, what are they serving here? Oysters, charcuterie, cheese service, yes—and small plates, bigger plates and dessert. And an incredible list of accessible and noteworthy wines designed specifically to go with what you’re ordering. The array and its stellar descriptions make you want to try every single one and rethink everything you thought you did or didn’t like about a particular varietal. It’s pretty safe to say you probably haven’t seen so many rieslings on one wine list in Pennsylvania. So, what’s the food like?
“There’s no putting a neat label on the cuisine; the menu deliberately embraces an exciting diversity of flavors and ingredients from across the world that happen to go really well with wine—very much the modern Australian wine bar model,” says Hansche.
To that end, however, the menu is heavily influenced by the food you would find in wine-growing regions, she says. Think like this: “The salty, briny bites typical of Spanish or Portuguese tapas, the rich gaminess in French and German food or the bright acidity and freshness of Mediterranean cuisine,” says Hansche.
The goal here is to bring food and wine together in ways that really excite the palate. It’s a refreshing attitude, considering that wine (and wine bars) have a reputation for snobbery and exclusivity. Kabinett, however, dispenses with such old-school ideas. There are wines from all over the world. I got stuck on the Moric Hausmarke Rot Blaufränkisch MV (that’s multivarietal), a biodynamic wine whose flavors become more complex the more they interplay with food.
These wines have stories to tell. Hoy and the staff are happy to tell them, and they want you to be able to afford to hear them, too. About 10 or so of the 100-plus bottles are available by the glass. They’ve taken great pains to not overly mark things up. “We want people to have a life-changing, profound wine experience, not feel like they took out a mortgage to enjoy wine,” says Hoy.
The emergence of a place like Kabinett comes when the era of egocentric and overwrought dining experiments is having its moment of recognizance (NOMA closing, the film The Menu, etc.). Here, you won’t find food that’s unrecognizably and necessarily esoteric. There’s plenty to love at first bite; no persuasion needed. You might recognize steak tartare on the menu, but its presentation is distinguished by crunchy house-made prawn chips. You’ll recognize a cauliflower head, but maybe not the presentation, whereby the cauliflower boasts layers of flavor, is rubbed down with a Persian spice mix and situated on top of a swoosh of labneh, along with pomegranate arils and fennel—fronds included. The beef cheek is succulent and breaks off the fork with ease, thanks to a 12-hour braise. A sunchoke purée and black trumpet mushrooms add earthiness, and perfectly blistered cherry tomatoes offer a welcome hit of acidity and brightness. You don’t need steak when you have a dish this umami-forward. Don’t miss dessert; let’s just leave it at that.
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“Krauted” beets with pastrami crust, pickled mustard seed and horseradish.
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Steak tartare with black garlic, espresso, preserved kumquat and shrimp crackers.
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Whole-roasted confit cauliflower with Persian spices, labneh, fennel and pomegranate.
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Braised beef cheek with sunchoke puree, ground cherry, black trumpets and chicharrón.
In short, everything here is approachable even if you aren’t sure. Ask questions; the servers are happy to explain what’s happening on the plate.
People are surprised and loving what they’re ordering, says Hoy. “I don’t think there’s a dish on the menu that hasn’t been well-received.” The kitchen is stoked, and brings forth tons of ideas that the team collaborates and brainstorms together on. Kabinett is likely to maintain a careful balance; new dishes will surface but not necessarily at the expense of yanking stuff that works.
Things are little different at Kabinett in other ways, too. If you didn’t know it beforehand, you’d see it right away on the menu with the first item: “Pay it Forward.” At $15, it’s a donation to local food pantries and school initiatives, a continuation of the community-minded approach they took at Tucker. Employees are paid a fair wage along with health insurance. There are two co-executive chefs, Paige Robinson and Jacob Watson, each with ample and admirable culinary experience. The business is set up, as Hoy explains it, so that at some point in the future they can hand half of the business over to employees in a cooperative model. The pandemic has brightly illuminated a long-known fact: the hospitality system is broken. But Kabinett aims to make improvements.
“We’re a mission-driven business determined to change the conversation around hospitality, an industry historically plagued by inequity, abuse and low wages. We’re trying to create a fairer and more sustainable model: paying above a living wage, providing health care and benefits to our full-time staff and pooling gratuities equally between the front and back of house,” Hansche explains.
How does this look for patrons? “It’s all hands in,” says Hoy. “Everyone can help everyone.”
One last thing. If you’re looking for a slower pace and an experience to savor, show up for brunch. Hoy admits it’s his favorite service, a sentiment that’s not universally shared by restaurant owners or chefs. “People come in and it’s leisurely, they go home and have a nap, maybe, but they’re in a good place to go enjoy the rest of their day,” he says. Sounds pretty sweet.
Regardless of whether it’s day or night, however, it’s very easy to feel that way when you close Kabinett’s door behind you.
Kabinett Wine Bar & Garden
125 Northampton St., Easton | 484.545.7670 | kabinettwinebar.com
Hours
Wed. & Thurs.: 6–11 p.m.; Fri. & Sat.: 5 p.m.–midnight; Brunch: Sat. & Sun.: 10 a.m.–3 p.m. (No dinner service on Sunday.)
Reservations:
Absolutely recommended for Friday and Saturday via Resy (accessible through their website), with more room for walk-ins on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Parking:
Street parking; garage parking
What to Order
Bread service (don’t miss!), the “krauted” beets are as delicious as they are beautiful, braised beef cheek (we’ve already discussed its finer points), steak tartare, whole roasted cauliflower, crispy new potatoes with house cultured butter, and anything else, really.
Special Events
Wine and dinner pairings on the last Thursday of the month (inquire within!), and much more to come.
Published as “Inside Dish” in the March 2023 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
