When Acme’s chef emeritus Mads Refslund departed at the end of last year, the popular NoHo restaurant closed its doors. But it wasn’t a signal of the downtown dining stalwart’s demise.
Acme has managed to sidestep NYC dining’s notoriously high turnover rate — what’s new and hot quickly cools — and instead establish itself as a sort of culinary chameleon. The downtown restaurant — which also includes Acme Downstairs, a sceney basement bar frequented by the fashion and art crowd — was originally a Cajun restaurant when partners Jon Neidich, Jean-Marc Houmard and Huy Chi Le bought the space in 2012. The trio enlisted Nordic chef Refslund to reimagine the menu, and his cooking garnered a slew of positive reviews for the restaurant. When Refslund announced his departure, the restaurant started scouting for a new chef to lead its next phase.