Coming this month to Edgewater: Income Tax (5959 N. Broadway), a restaurant and bar specializing in old-world eats and unexpected wines. The project, from owner Nelson Fitch, general manager Collin Moody (previously of Perman Wine Selections), and executive chef Ryan Henderson (Maple and Ash, plus New York’s Alder and Momofuku), will attempt to snare the neighborhood crowd with a flexible, affordable selection. Even the off-kilter name is intended to blend in with the surrounding currency exchanges and pawn shops. With a planned end-of-the-month opening, Income Tax will seat a total of 50 between its bar and dining area.
Fitch and Moody schemed about opening a restaurant for months before they linked up with Henderson. While bottle hunting, Henderson stumbled into Perman and happened to catch Moody on his last day behind the counter. In August, a few months and meetings later, Henderson left his old gig and started developing dishes for Income Tax.
The menu will playfully reinterpret Spanish, French, Italian, and German classics through the lens of Henderson’s modern culinary experience. Some possibilities he’s currently toying with: a “black forest” duck, cured with all the spices of a traditional German ham, with red cabbage spätzle and a white-pizza-like tarte flambée, baked with pickled pearl onions, bacon, and cheese in a fluted tart pan. “The best thing about it,” says Henderson of the tarte, “is that you can pair it with just about any wine you want.”
That’s a handy quality to have at Income Tax, where the wine list features a range of European vino. What’s more, Henderson and co. have an interesting bottle-sharing plan in the works: a guest can order by the half-bottle, with the remaining wine to be sold by the glass to other patrons. It’s a strategy, per Henderson, that “just encourages people to open more bottles.” The by-the-glass list will thus change by the day, and even by the hour.
Wine even winds its way into one of the creative desserts on Henderson’s planned menu: a Port macaron, with the digestif gelled (booziness still intact) and used to fill the cookie. “We’re trying to have fun with these classics,” says Henderson. “There’s a lot of thought going into everything but, at the same time, we’re trying not to overthink it.”