I’ve never before left a meal ruminating on a crouton. I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the course of my life examining the flakiness of a croissant, the bite of bucatini boiled al dente and the tender flesh of a baguette. But croutons, to me, have always been secondary to the salad itself—a sometimes superfluous addition to the contents wandering a plate of produce. That is, until I ate dinner at Lord’s.

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Praised for vivifying the stale reputation of British fare, the one-room restaurant at 506 LaGuardia Place was already packed with patrons just an hour past its 5:30 p.m. opening on a recent Tuesday evening. Tealight candles and gold pendants illuminated the dim brick and evergreen space warmed by wooden floors, booths, tables and chairs. The interior was an overture to the meal itself: an evening in England. Like entering the din of a corner pub, the feeling was similar to the sun gracing Hampstead Heath on an overcast day: a break from the clouds, a dark ale, a Scotch Egg.

London-born chef Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard debuted Lord’s, their second ode to British dining, in fall 2022, following the 2020 opening of Dame (first as a fish ‘n’ chips pop-up for pandemic takeout and then as a full-service seafood restaurant in June 2021). Nearly two years later, Lord’s is a well-oiled machine, with a full house Monday through Saturday.

Szymanski learned the ropes of the restaurant industry in kitchens with sizable meat selections on the menu. Raised by parents who loved to cook, he renounced the “high-flying career of asset management” in 2012 to apprentice (without pay) at London’s Pitt Cue for three chefs who each went on to earn a Michelin star. By 25, his aptitude for modern meat pies was not only earning him a paycheck, but also landed him an executive chef role at Cherry Point in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (The restaurant closed in 2020.) When it was time to open Lord’s with Howard (his wife and business partner), Szymanski wanted to bring more than just tasteful British food to Manhattan.

“It started from a desire to not waste anything and to show the American audience in the New York........

© Observer