Mark Bittman’s New Restaurant Doesn’t Care About Profit

It’s been decades since the East Village was an edgy New York City enclave of punk rock, poetry and artists like Andy Warhol. Today it’s more of a New York University annex, where the well-heeled can enjoy Michelin-starred restaurants, buzzy bars and stylish hotels. The neighborhood’s upward mobility is most obvious from Second Avenue to Avenue B, but even Avenue C now boasts hip spots such as Ayat, Bobwhite Counter and Joyface.

One block east, though, Avenue D tells a different story: bodegas, empty storefronts and public housing. It’s here that food journalist and cookbook author Mark Bittman recently opened his first iteration of Community Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant that, as he puts it, “does everything right.”