Few buildings in Lower Manhattan carry the vertical ambition of 70 Pine Street. Completed in 1932 by architects Clinton & Russell, Holton & George, this sixty-seven-story Art Deco tower once ranked as the third tallest structure in the world, trailing only the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. It housed the headquarters of Cities Service Company, whose founder Henry Latham Doherty maintained a private apartment on the uppermost floors. Decades later, AIG occupied its offices. And then, in 2016, the tower was converted into 644 luxury rental apartments, its magnificent marble lobby reopened to the public for the first time in generations. But the ground floor remained hungry for something more. In March 2019, Chef Jamal James Kent and restaurateur Jeff Katz gave it exactly that: Crown Shy, a Michelin-starred neighborhood restaurant that channels the spirit of New York City itself — multicultural, relentless, dressed down in sneakers, and utterly uncompromising where it counts.
The name derives from a phenomenon in forestry called crown shyness, where the canopies of mature trees grow toward one another but never quite touch, leaving slender channels of light between them. Executive Chef Jassimran Singh, who now leads the kitchen, has described the metaphor beautifully: the Financial District’s towers stretch skyward much the same way, and between them, just enough sunlight reaches the street to illuminate what lives below (MICHELIN Guide, 2026). Crown Shy occupies that illuminated space — ground-level, wide-windowed, deliberately accessible, and charged with the energy of a neighborhood that refuses to sleep when the closing bell rings.
The Founders: A Greenwich Village Kid and a Del Posto Veteran
James Kent’s origin story reads like a New York fable. Born and raised in Greenwich Village, he spent his adolescence tagging subway cars and running with graffiti crews until his mother — in a stroke of parental genius — convinced him to knock on the door of their neighbor, the legendary chef David Bouley. Kent was fourteen years old. That summer apprenticeship in 1994 ignited a three-decade culinary career that would arc through Le Cordon Bleu in London and Paris, the kitchens of Babbo under Mario Batali, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s flagship, and ultimately Eleven Madison Park, where he rose from line cook to chef de cuisine during the years the restaurant earned three Michelin stars and four stars from The New York Times (Institute of Culinary Education, 2024). He won the Bocuse d’Or USA in 2010 and represented the United States at the international finals in Lyon, France. By 2013, he was executive chef at The NoMad, which itself earned a Michelin star under his leadership.
His partner, Jeff Katz, brought a different but equally formidable pedigree. Katz spent thirteen years as managing partner and general manager at Del Posto, the landmark Italian restaurant in Chelsea that earned four stars from The New York Times, the James Beard Award for Outstanding Service, and Relais & Châteaux membership during his tenure (ICE, 2019). Katz understood something fundamental about hospitality: that the magic happens not just on the plate but in the invisible choreography of a dining room operating at the highest level. When Kent and Katz began discussing a partnership in 2017, they shared a conviction that fine dining in New York had grown too rigid, too reverential. They wanted to build something that honored their training but rejected its pretensions.
Crown Shy opened in March 2019 at 70 Pine Street to immediate acclaim. New York Times critic Pete Wells awarded two stars, writing that the restaurant seemed to arrive almost fully formed. The Infatuation gave it one of its highest scores of the year. Within six months, the Michelin Guide awarded its first star — a distinction Crown Shy has maintained every year since (Crown Shy, 2025).
Architecture and Atmosphere: Where Art Deco Meets the Open Kitchen
Walking into Crown Shy is an experience in controlled drama. The lobby of 70 Pine Street — all original marble, geometric brass detailing, and soaring proportions — funnels guests into a seven-thousand-square-foot dining room designed by MN Design Professional Corporation, the firm behind Kappo Masa and Cote Korean Steakhouse. The ceilings rise to sixteen feet. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the space with natural light during lunch service. A thirty-foot granite bar anchors the room, flanked by exposed steel columns that echo the structural bones of the surrounding skyscrapers.
The design team drew inspiration from early Modernism while resisting anything that felt sterile or classical. The floor was conceived to feel like a city sidewalk. The corridor to the restrooms was imagined as an art gallery. Leather banquettes in warm tones line the perimeter, and the open kitchen — visible from nearly every seat — was designed not merely for spectacle but for genuine transparency. MN Design noted that the view from the kitchen outward toward the dining room was just as intentional as the reverse: cooks working the line can see the guests they are feeding, and that visual connection generates a kind of accountability and intimacy that closed kitchens cannot replicate (TotalFood, 2019).
The soundtrack leans toward hip-hop. Images of musicians hang on the walls. There are no tablecloths, no mandatory tasting menus, and no dress code beyond whatever makes you comfortable. Kent and Katz designed Crown Shy as a deliberate rejection of the stiff-collared fine dining template — a restaurant where sneakers and a hoodie carry the same welcome as a tailored suit. The space seats approximately 120 in the main dining room, with two private dining rooms and a sixteen-seat bar for walk-ins.
The Kitchen After Kent: Jassimran Singh and the Next Chapter
On June 15, 2024, James Kent died of a heart attack at the age of forty-five. He had been doing graffiti work — one of his lifelong passions — when he was stricken. The loss devastated the New York culinary community. Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Marcus Samuelsson, Kwame Onwuachi, and dozens of other chefs and restaurateurs posted tributes within hours. Kent left behind his wife Kelly and two children, Gavin and Avery (Good Morning America, 2024).
He also left behind a hospitality empire in full expansion. By the time of his death, Saga Hospitality Group — the name an acronym of the partners’ children’s names: Seylah, Ayla, Gavin, and Avery — had grown to include Crown Shy on the ground floor, Saga (two Michelin stars) on the sixty-third floor, and Overstory (ranked among the World’s 50 Best Bars) on the sixty-fourth floor, all within 70 Pine Street. Kent had secured investment from LeBron James’ firm LRMR Ventures for a planned national expansion, including a fast-casual fried chicken sandwich concept and additional restaurants in Midtown, Park Avenue, and Williamsburg (Restaurant Business Online, 2024). Now rebranded as Kent Hospitality Group, the company has continued to grow, adding Birdee — a bakery and café in Williamsburg helmed by former Crown Shy pastry chef Renata Ameni — and The Racquet Lounge in Southampton.
The person entrusted with carrying Crown Shy forward is Jassimran Singh, who had worked alongside Kent for a decade. Born in New Delhi, Singh moved to Melbourne at nineteen to study culinary arts at Holmes College. He cooked at Maze by Gordon Ramsay and No. 8 by John Lawson before relocating to New York in 2014, joining Kent at The NoMad as a sous chef. On his first day, he nearly walked out: the restaurant required clean-shaven faces, and Singh, as a Sikh, wears his kesh and turban as articles of faith. Kent’s response was immediate and unequivocal — Singh’s faith would never be a barrier in his kitchen (Resy, 2025).
Singh became chef de cuisine when Crown Shy opened, was later promoted to culinary director overseeing both Crown Shy and Saga, and is now executive chef-partner — the first Sikh American to lead two Michelin-starred kitchens simultaneously. His philosophy honors Kent’s vision of collaborative, multicultural cooking while introducing his own sensibility: tandoori flatbreads developed with executive pastry sous chef Anushana Sharma, Indian-inflected techniques threaded through globally inspired plates, and a deep commitment to ensuring every member of the kitchen team has a creative voice.
The Menu: Global Technique, Neighborhood Spirit
Crown Shy’s menu operates at the intersection of European technique and global flavor, a reflection of New York City’s own culinary DNA. The approach has never been tied to a single geography or tradition. Instead, the kitchen draws from the personal histories, travels, and cultural backgrounds of its entire team — a philosophy Kent embedded from day one and Singh has amplified.
The signature dish remains the Grilled Citrus-Marinated Chicken with Crown Shy hot sauce, a preparation Kent and his team perfected during the restaurant’s earliest months. Bon Appétit featured Singh making the dish in a 2025 video, and it continues to be the single most requested item on the dinner menu — a dish so popular that regulars reportedly book reservations specifically for it. The chicken arrives whole, served boldly with the foot attached (a detail that has polarized guests with entertaining consistency), its skin burnished and lacquered, the meat impossibly juicy from extended marination.
Beyond the chicken, the current dinner menu showcases the kitchen’s range: oysters with sherry consommé and celery; spicy tuna with pineapple and nori chip; jerk octopus with stewed beans and yams; bucatini with lamb merguez and mussels; ricotta gnocchi with chanterelles and vin jaune; blackened monkfish au poivre; and pork katsu with curry béarnaise and gooseberry. The Gruyère fritters — a signature since opening night, a gougères-meets-churro hybrid dusted with chili and lime — remain a non-negotiable first order for anyone who has eaten here before. The olive bread, pulled apart at the table to reveal tapenade baked into its folds, sets the tone for the meal with unapologetic generosity.
Pastry has always punched above its weight at Crown Shy. The Sticky Toffee Pudding for Two, served with pecans and apple sorbet, has become one of the most talked-about desserts in downtown Manhattan — a composition that reviewers have described as tasting like autumn and comfort regardless of the season. Rice pudding with pistachio brittle and cardamom anglaise and chocolate marquise with brown butter and olive oil round out a dessert program that refuses to be an afterthought.
Lunch service features a three-course prix fixe alongside à la carte options, and weekend brunch has expanded Crown Shy’s audience beyond the dinner crowd. The beverage program, led by bar director Harrison Ginsberg and wine director Kristen Goceljak, balances an extensive wine list favoring American and European producers with a cocktail menu that shifts seasonally and runs creative without losing accessibility.
Legacy, Community, and the ROAR of Hospitality
Crown Shy’s significance extends well beyond its plates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kent and Katz launched ROAR — Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants — a grassroots campaign that petitioned lawmakers for rent abatement, sales and payroll tax suspension, and mortgage forgiveness for restaurant landlords. The initiative drew attention to the structural vulnerabilities of an industry that employs over fifteen million Americans yet had no representation at government relief negotiations (Tribeca Citizen, 2020). Kent and Katz also secured a substantial severance package for their 140 employees through their building partners — an act of financial generosity that few independent restaurants could match during the shutdown.
Kent was equally vocal about mental health in the hospitality industry, founding the Crown Shy Running Club as a way to build community and manage the physical and psychological toll of professional kitchens. He and his wife Kelly ran together, trained for marathons, and eventually opened the club to diners — a Sunday night dinner reservation came with an invitation to run with the kitchen team the following morning. Kent completed the 2022 NYC Marathon as a ROAR fundraiser, and the running club became one of Crown Shy’s most distinctive community initiatives. He also co-chaired the annual Chef’s Benefit dinner for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and mentored young professionals through Ment’Or, a program devoted to inspiring culinary excellence (Downtown Alliance, 2024).
Singh has continued this ethos of community investment, maintaining the kitchen’s culture of inclusivity and creative collaboration that Kent worked so deliberately to build. The restaurant employs approximately fifty staff members and remains one of the Financial District’s most significant dining employers.
Practical Information: Reservations, Hours, and Getting There
Address: 70 Pine Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10005
Phone: (212) 517-1932
Website: crownshy.nyc
Reservations: Available through Tock — reservations are highly recommended, as tables fill quickly, particularly for dinner on Thursday through Saturday.
DoorDash Delivery: Order on DoorDash
Hours:
- Lunch: Monday–Friday, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- Brunch: Saturday–Sunday, 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM
- Bar: Monday–Wednesday & Sunday, 4:45 PM – 11:00 PM; Thursday–Saturday, 4:45 PM – 12:00 AM
- Dinner: Monday–Wednesday & Sunday, 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM; Thursday–Saturday, 5:30 PM – 11:00 PM
Price Range: $$$$. Starters range from $19–$33, main courses from $32–$49, desserts $19–$20. Expect approximately $100–$150 per person with drinks.
Parking: iPark at 9 Cedar Street (between Pearl and William). Ask the Crown Shy team for applicable discounts.
Subway Access: 2/3 to Wall Street; R to Rector Street; J/Z to Broad Street; 4/5 to Wall Street; A/C to Fulton Street.
Private Dining: Two private dining rooms available for events and celebrations. Contact the events team through Kent Hospitality Group’s event request page.
Accolades: One Michelin Star (maintained annually since 2019); Two Stars from The New York Times (Pete Wells, 2019); World’s 50 Best Discovery listing; part of Kent Hospitality Group alongside two-Michelin-starred Saga and World’s 50 Best Bar Overstory.
Also at 70 Pine Street: Saga (63rd floor, two Michelin stars, tasting menu); Overstory (64th floor, cocktail bar with 360-degree skyline views).
A Living Monument to What New York Cooking Can Be
Peter from The Heritage Diner here — and as someone who has spent twenty-five years running a neighborhood restaurant on Long Island, I recognize in Crown Shy something that transcends Michelin stars and celebrity investment. What Kent and Katz built, and what Singh now stewards, is a restaurant that insists on being a neighborhood joint first and a destination second. That ordering of priorities is the hardest thing in hospitality to maintain when the accolades pile up. It is also the only thing that keeps a restaurant alive across decades rather than seasons.
The comparison between Crown Shy’s open kitchen and the transparency we practice at The Heritage Diner is one of scale, not of kind. Whether you are watching a line cook plate citrus-marinated chicken beneath sixteen-foot Art Deco ceilings or watching a short-order cook work a cast-iron griddle behind a Formica counter, the principle is identical: food made in plain view carries a different covenant with the person who eats it. There is accountability in visibility. At Marcellino NY, I understand this same principle through leather — every saddle stitch on a briefcase is visible, every imperfection or perfection on display, because the bespoke standard demands that nothing hide behind a lining or a logo. Crown Shy’s open kitchen is, in its own way, a declaration that the work will speak for itself.
Kent’s death at forty-five is a reminder that the hospitality industry extracts a physical and emotional toll that the dining public rarely considers. His advocacy for mental health, his running club, his ROAR initiative during the pandemic — these were not side projects. They were the connective tissue of a philosophy that understood restaurants as community institutions first. As Paola and I prepare to launch Maison Pawli in 2026, bringing boutique real estate sensibility to the North Shore, I keep returning to the lesson Crown Shy teaches: that the best businesses are built not on exclusivity but on genuine welcome, not on trends but on conviction, and not on a single visionary but on a team that shares a voice.
Go eat at Crown Shy. Order the chicken. Order the fritters. Sit at the bar if you cannot get a table. And when you walk out through that Art Deco lobby and back onto Pine Street, look up between the towers. That narrow channel of light between the crowns — that is what this restaurant was named for, and that is precisely what it provides.
