A Brooklyn chef residency hub is closing…
Fulgurances Laundromat, the Brooklyn outpost of the Paris restaurant that hosts chef residencies, which opened in 2021, is closing. Its last day of service in Greenpoint at 132 Franklin Street, between Milton Street and Greenpoint Avenue, will be on Wednesday, December 31, with the current residency run by Eleven Madison Park sous chef Brock Middleton.
…But an alum of that residency series is taking it over for his own restaurant…
However, a Fulgurances Laundromat resident chef alum is taking over the space for a new restaurant, per Greenpointers. Chef Kevin Finch and his wife, Lex, will open Arthur in the spring of 2026.
Arthur was originally Finch’s pop-up series. The new location keeps its casual ethos as a neighborhood restaurant. It’ll have “ingredient-driven cuisine, inviting ambiance and globally-inspired menus of the modern Parisian bistro,” he told Greenpointers, with a la carte and a chef’s tasting menus. Dishes will include snail kushiyaki and dry-aged tilefish.
Finch cooked at Fulgurances for three months in 2022; his previous culinary experience includes (currently closed but soon to be returning) Roman-style restaurant Maialino, Maaemo in Norway, and Atelier Crenn in San Francisco.
…And the Fulgurances team is opening a new wine bar and rotisserie on the same block.
The Fulgurances members — co-founder Hugo Hivernat, plus Thibault Dubreuil and Pierre Buffet from the wine team — are already working on their next restaurant, per Greenpointers, on the same blog. Wine bar and rotisserie Gigi’s will open at 138 Franklin Street, near Greenpoint Avenue, in early 2026. Expect lots of European and French wines, roast chicken with broth, salad, dirty rice, and sides like chicken fat-roasted potatoes, along with vegetables, terrines, cheeses, and more, from chef Thomas Knodell. The team had told the blog that they “definitely” will continue the chef residency program.
Unrelated to the above: where to find excellent takeout banchan