Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Happy Monkey in Greenwich + Now Serving Lunch

Andrew Dominick April 02, 2023

You’ve not had arroz con pollo like this before.

A bowl arrives at my table, and I’ve never seen arroz con pollo like this before. Pan seared chunks of chicken just barely peek out of the rice. And the rice? It looks a perfect midpoint between fluffy and al dente. It’s clearly well-seasoned, sucking up all that stock and sofrito.

But something about it strikes me.

My eyes catch the bright yellow pops of just shaved lemon zest and the many crunchy, salty chips of chicken skin “chicharrons.” There’s even a fat lemon wedge intended to be squeezed overtop of the dish. I wasn’t going to be hesitant, but Ron Gallo urges me before I could grab the citrus to sprinkle on this upscale chicken and rice.

“Squeeze the lemon on there,” he says. “I don’t know why people are scared to squeeze the lemon.”

The acid combo of the lemon juice and zest lightens up a usually monotone (albeit delicious dish) tenfold. It makes you want to go back for forkful after forkful. Or it makes you want to ask the server for one of those small plastic shovels you brought to the beach as a toddler in place of a proper utensil.

By the time the arroz con pollo arrived, though, I was already stuffed (in a non-heavy feeling way) from fresh slapped guacamole with toasted pistachios, a few pork tacos, at least a half order of huevos rancheros, and a few more dishes that appear on Happy Monkey’s hybrid weekend morning, early afternoon menu that’s a mash up of brunch and dinner.

The arroz con pollo still slapped for dinner that same day if you were wondering.

That sort of sums up what Happy Monkey is. Latin food…fancified.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant?

Don’t be coy. You knew that.

The early 11:30 a.m. scene was slow. An hour later, only a few tables remained vacant.

And if you walked up or down that side of Greenwich Avenue prior to June 2022 when the sign was up and that space’s windows were papered, you likely tried to peek in. When JG opens a restaurant or is about to, there’s natural excitement, even if you know you’ll pay upwards of $20 per two tacos and $30 for chicken and rice.

Running the pass at Happy Monkey and all the haute Latin American fusion it offers is chef Ron Gallo, who, if you dined at The Inn at Pound Ridge in the past five and a half years, you may have seen him, and you’ve certainly enjoyed his cooking.

Crispy BBQ pork tacos with pickled pineapple and Fresno chili relish. The tortillas are the ONLY thing Happy Monkey doesn’t do in-house. They are delivered twice weekly by the Michelin Bibb Gourmand listed Sobre Masa in Brooklyn. The reason? “They have proper equipment, ingredients, space, and time,” Gallo explains. “They will always do it better.”

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But the style of cuisine that is Happy Monkey turned out to be something Gallo didn’t know he wanted.

“Quite frankly, when JG offered me this position, I leaned in and said, ‘I don’t know anything about Latin food,’” he says.

I stopped him, asking, “Did you think of saying no?!”

“Ha! No way!” Gallo replies. “Not to him.”

If anyone could have actually refused Jean-Georges, it might be Gallo, who has known and worked for his superior since 1987.

Gallo, now a Downtown Stamford resident after years in Brooklyn, moved closer after lengthy commutes to The Inn. He joked that the hardest part of leaving Brooklyn was “convincing my wife to leave.” Before his five-plus years at The Inn, Gallo was at JoJo by Jean-Georges. Practically a lifelong chef in JG’s restaurant group, Gallo only took two hiatuses, one for 10 months and another for a year and a half. “There’s three or four of us that have been with him that long,” he says. “It’s unheard of in this industry. It shows what kind of man he is. Every four years or so we get a new challenge.”

“It was my second job out of culinary school,” Gallo explains. “I graduated the CIA in 1985. I met him a few years after at Lafayette. Traditional, classic French was so in in the 80s. A friend of mine talked about Jean-Georges and told me I needed to take a job with him because he’s a genius. And that was before anyone even knew who he was. What he thought about food was different than any other French chef or any chef at that time.”

Before he got ready to take up the helm in Greenwich, Gallo trained in Manhattan for three months at abc Cocina, a restaurant that’s essentially the mold for Happy Monkey. “To learn a new style of cuisine at Cocina was fantastic,” Gallo says. “The world of flavors is amazing. The depth of flavor. Knowing which chilis to pair with what takes time and knowledge. By the time I got here (to Happy Monkey) I was confident. I knew that after all these years of cooking, I knew that was the one cuisine I was not familiar with professionally. That’s why I took it. It really reenergized me.”

Cocktails range from strong sippers like this lavender-infused mezcal negroni, the more refreshing like piña coladas, and seven different margaritas.

If Gallo is reenergized by Happy Monkey, customers will surely feel something, too. The look of the place is unlike any Jean-Georges establishment. The hanging greenery and basket lamps, and a massive back wall mural of Frida Kahlo and her pet spider monkey, Fulang Chang, deck the rear wall. It has a way of making you feel like you’re vacationing in Central or South America or somewhere on South Beach and the scene will ease the frustration it was to find a parking space on or off Greenwich Avenue. It’s an overall more chill atmosphere than JG’s two Michelin star namesake restaurant in NYC, a touch more laid back than The Inn, and several of the star chef’s other spots.

Guac + fresh peas in the spring and summer

Guac + pistachios in colder months. Gallo shared that once the spring hits, we should expect a few changes of existing items (the guac is an example of that), and 8-10 new dishes. He also said, “Jean-Georges always wants to be the first with fresh, seasonal ingredients. He goes and gets it.”

The food is approachable as well, even if you might scoff at the price tag. Remember, it’s a JG restaurant where the ingredients are top of the line and it’s not your neighborhood taqueria. In fact, it’s not a taqueria at all, so forget that notion. Seasonal guac with peas in the springtime and toasted pistachios in the offseason, an addictive sweet potato app with chili-garlic crunch, whole wheat rosemary-olive corn focaccia, three crudos, three salads, and six different tacos are solid for-the-table choices, which what the menu is geared towards, family style sharing. You could maybe share the smoked ham and Manchego fritters, but it’s a small five piece. They’re tasty, so maybe share just one or get your own separate order.

Larger plates as of press time are a whole roasted cauliflower (spiced fig compote and almonds), whole grilled lobster with smoked chili butter, pan seared black bass (leek and guajillo vinaigrette, market potatoes), a pricey grass fed sirloin with sesame seeds and spinach sriracha butter, and the arroz con pollo that I thought was a homerun.

Sweet potatoes, chili-garlic crush, cotija, mint. Addictive. This disappeared quickly.

I know, I know. We keep going back to the cost factor. Isn’t everything expensive right now? Gallo says the reason is the high end ingredients.

“A great reason to be in this restaurant group is that the great purveyors seek us out most of the time,” he says. “When you see a pork taco, we use the best cut of pork, no hormones, all organic. The best beef for short rib tacos. Almost everything we use is organic and the best of the best, including milk, sugar, everything. Our steak is a prime cut, 10 ounces, but people shy away from it because of the price. But if it was a $20 steak, you might not want to eat that anyway. We use the same ingredients that Jean-Georges with two Michelin stars uses. Because it’s him, this is the only way we do things.”

Coconut pancakes, berries, lavender maple syrup

Hopefully that helps clarify any gripes with your bill before you go and if you go.

New for Gallo and the crew at Happy Monkey are lunch services. At first, the dinner menu will be offered while they tinker with a few lunch exclusives like salads with a protein, possibly a torta (I had to ask about that!), and they’ll see what sticks. If you can’t make it to weekday lunch, Happy Monkey does weekend brunch from 11 – 3 serving an abbreviated dinner menu in addition to coconut pancakes, orange blossom conchas, Mexican spiced French toast with caramelized apples, eggy Benny tostadas with smoked ham, and a wonderful, non-goopy huevos rancheros.

Big order of churros, please and thank you.

Desserts do switch up. Passion fruit tres leches in the present, chocolate tres leches was served in the summer when Happy Monkey opened.

If you were intrigued by Happy Monkey, you now have a lot to do with what you may. So, go. Or don’t. But it’s Jean-Georges, so you’re at least curious if you haven’t already been.

As you should with anything in life, do what makes you as happy as a monkey.

376 Greenwich Avenue; Greenwich
203.405.5787; happymonkeygreenwich.com