All change at The Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Brooklyn, known for its frequently changing seasonal menu and a world-class wine list, is co-owned by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, but the chef and creative force in the kitchen is Nick Curtola. After several successful years, Curtola is shaking things up and embracing growth with a new cookbook out and a new restaurant in the pipeline for next spring.

It's a period of change at The Four Horsemen, and change can be disruptive. Thankfully, Curtola explains, he has a stable foundation in his restaurant that allows him to embrace that change, it’s based on the team he has built there.

“We have almost 10 years under our belt,” says Curtola. “We have the team locked in, a bunch of people who have been with me for years. They’re giving me a ton of support and allowing me to break away a little bit. I’m focusing on this mini book tour that we have going on and also, I’m in the planning stages of opening up our new restaurant. Which is slated to open in the spring.”

The new restaurant will open in Brooklyn at 284 Grand Street in Williamsburg, in the space formerly occupied by the restaurant Neeloo. It will be an easier-going place with a focus on seasonality but leaning into Curtola’s Italian roots.

“So, it’s going to be Italian focus, twice the size of The Four Horsemen, so it will give us a chance for bigger parties, larger format dishes. A more convivial vibe,” says Curtola.

“We’d kind of outgrown The Four Horsemen,” he continues. “We’ve had a really good group of talented people working for us over the years. I got tired of losing these people because they hit the ceiling at The Four Horsemen, because we didn’t have any other career avenue for them to pursue. For us this is really about having more space to grow and support our staff.”

Stepping away from a restaurant you have spent a decade building is a difficult thing to do, but Curtola is not leaving The Four Horsemen, but rather handing the reins to his trusted team while he builds a new reality. It’s an exercise in trust, but Curtola has put in the work to hire people who stick around and get what they do.

“It’s about 75% vibes, 25% technical ability,” he says. “I always tell the new hires that ‘we can train you.’ We’ve only had a few people who couldn’t manage to gel with us and keep up with what we do, but it’s always better to have someone who’s a little bit more on the green side, but just really wants to be there and learn the way you do things.”

Life and business are about change, often that change can coincide with difficult periods. The team at the Four Horsemen has endured just such a period with the loss of founder, owner, and Wine Director and internationally renowned natural wine expert, Justin Chearno in August.

“Honestly, it’s been tough to kind of deal with, because the timing with the book, and I feel like I haven’t had the chance to really deal with it,” says Curtola. “I feel like I’ve been floating along for the last month and now we’re at crunch time with the book, so we’re just trying to do the best we can to make sure we’re doing him justice. Making the restaurant as good as it can.

“Justin was an owner but was really involved in the running of the restaurant on a daily basis. Me and the team were really close to him, we’d have tastings all the time. He was really present in the city in the world of wine in New York and abroad, he was really hard working. It was really soul crushing to get that news and to see the ripple effect through the global wine community too. It’s good to see that his legacy is going to be a lasting one.”

For now, though, Curtola is moving forward. With a book tour to promote his first cookbook, The Four Horsemen: Food and Wine for Good Times, there is no time for anything but work. They say everyone has a cookbook in them, but writing it and getting it out there is another thing altogether.

“It was definitely harder than we thought,” says Curtola. “It was tricky navigating the story of The Four Horsemen but to make it a book that people could use in their homes. We tried to walk that fine line of telling a story, but to make it useful.”

It would be remiss of any journalist not to enquire as to the origin of the name of the restaurant, and while I have Curtola on the phone I take the opportunity? Where, what, why?

“You’re asking the wrong person,” says Curtola. “That was there before I got involved. I wouldn’t want to mess up the story about what it means. I’ve never gotten a clear story of it, put it that way.”