NEWSLETTER
A New Outpost of the Award-Winning Continent Restaurant and Lounge in Atlanta
Located within Hotel Indigo Williamsburg, the new dining experience celebrates Caribbean-Afro-Asian fusion and the bold energy of Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY – May 29, 2024: Le Cordon Bleu-trained Chef and Restaurateur Scotley Innis and business partner Aliya Huey have unveiled Continent Brooklyn located at Hotel Indigo Williamsburg (500 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn), member of IHG Hotels & Resorts’ luxury & lifestyle portfolio. Opening to the public on June 1, 2024, Continent Brooklyn is a 110-seat, full-service restaurant on the garden level of the design-driven hotel. It offers inventive food & beverage menus with gastronomic inspirations from around the world, including Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, with a Brooklyn edge.
Originally from New York City, Chef Innis's opening of Continent Brooklyn is a homecoming. He has established himself as a culinary powerhouse in Atlanta by working through some of the city’s top kitchens before opening the massively popular Continent Restaurant and Cigar Lounge. Appearances on Hell's Kitchen, Chopped, and Late Night Eats have also made Chef Innis a welcomed TV personality, where his affinity for elevated cuisine based on his Jamaican heritage has become a memorable combination.
“I’m excited to be back in my hometown and show the culmination of my work to this point through Continent Brooklyn,” said Chef Innis. “With the Continent brand, we have created a cool and magnetic experience based on the traditions, flavors, and techniques I’ve learned around the world. In Continent Brooklyn, I want to show people a slightly different part of myself as a New Yorker with Jamaican roots and offer an experience that is true to who I am but also feels authentic in its new home in Brooklyn.”
Continent Brooklyn features a main dining floor at the garden level of Hotel Indigo Williamsburg. The venue offers two adjoining dining rooms (one can be used for private dining) with two-story windows facing a garden, a full-service restaurant bar, an upstairs bar lounge with premium and rare spirits, and a private terrace. Designed to feel intimate yet vibrant, Continent Brooklyn features a palette of gray and blue velvet banquettes and black dining tables, all accented by eye-catching decor and objects reminiscent of an eclectic friend’s home. A signature piece in the restaurant is a towering, custom mural painted by local artist Jermaine Percey Neal, which features dozens of faces in vibrant colors and bold strokes, evocative of Brooklyn's diverse and dynamic cultural fabric.
"We are thrilled to have Chef Scotley open his second dining concept at our hotel,” says Nicolas Daeppen, General Manager of Hotel Indigo Williamsburg. Chef Innis’ passion for creating community around unique flavors and the success he brings from Continent Atlanta will undoubtedly anchor his culinary presence in our vibrant neighborhood for all to enjoy.”
Starters
While dishes are inspired by Chef Scotley’s Jamaican upbringing, ingredients cut across borders and continents and showcase a variety of international flavors, like the Tamarind Wings in a jerk marinade, and Pepper Prawns sauteed in a red coconut curry. The Chinese-Jamaican inspired Oxtail Bao is braised and pulled off the bone, simmered with soy sauce, hoisin, brown sugar and scotch bonnet pepper; a homemade Suya spice – a West African spicy seasoning that originated in Nigeria – is experienced on Spiced Lamb Chops smoked with hickory wood chips. Other offerings include Potato Fritters with Moroccan spices, Mussels in a red pepper pomodoro sauce; Yard Man Oysters with callaloo, duck bacon, garlic butter, and smoked paprika breadcrumbs; and the signature Continent Salad with baby kale, avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onions, jackfruit, currants, Feta cheese, and a Champagne vinaigrette.
Main Dishes
Mains are equally internationally driven and include mainstay ingredients like punchy scotch bonnet. Nigerian and French origins inspire the Braised Lamb Shank, which is braised in red wine, chicken stock, mirepoix, rosemary, and thyme and then cooked down with a gravy consisting of lamb stock, onions, peppers, scotch bonnet pepper, and browning sauce. It is served with a cassava au gratin and topped with a mushroom ragu, which includes caramelized onions and shiitake & crimini mushrooms cooked down with marsala wine and topped with shaved parmesan cheese. Inspired by West African origins, the Scotch Bonnet Fried Chicken is marinated with scotch bonnet peppers, fresh thyme sprigs, green onions, milk, eggs, seasoning salt, and black pepper overnight. It is served with Kachumbari salad (an onion and tomato salad popular in Africa’s Great Lakes Region) and a honey thyme drizzle. Pan-seared Chilean Salmon is served with Caribbean-inspired callaloo gnocchi and a scotch bonnet beurre blanc sauce – a butter cream sauce with vinegar, white wine, shallots, garlic, and thyme. Chinese-Jamaican-inspired Oxtail Lo Mein features African and Jamaican ingredients; grilled Tomahawk Steak is prepared with jerk marinade; a whole Escovitch Lobster served with ackee & saltfish (Jamaica’s national dish) and plantain festival; and a Fried Whole Snapper in red coconut curry sauce and Szechuan vegetables is also offered.
Continent Brooklyn's memorable cocktail menu also takes guests around the globe, with exotic ingredients and premium spirits offering new takes on the classics and inventive new imbibing options throughout the meal service. Notable drinks include the Cinn-City (Patron Silver Tequila, banana liqueur, Aperol, cilantro, pineapple juice, served with a smoking cinnamon stick), Henny-Thyme Henny Place (Hennessy VS, creme de mure, thyme herb syrup, fresh lime juice, blackberry & thyme garnish), Sunsets Over Williamsburg (Volcan tequila, Aperol, fresh lime juice, champagne syrup, Maraschino cherry), Queen of the North (Gin, Rum, Tequila, Vodka, St Germaine, simple syrup, splash of cranberry in a Queens Glass), Stush Martini (St-Germain, white rum, white cranberry juice, lime juice and flower infused ice ball) and the signature Continent Punch (Coconut rum, Bacardi Rum, Wray & Nephew Rum, fresh pineapple juice, orange juice, guava juice, lime juice, and Jamaican grenadine, served in a coconut shell with a flaming lime).
“We’re so excited to expand our culinary offerings with Hotel Indigo Williamsburg,” says Aliya Huey, Partner at Brook & Lyn Eating, owners of the Continent Brooklyn, and the newly opened ALIYA Cocktail Den at Hotel Indigo Williamsburg. “We take so much pride in our food and cocktail curation, partner with the best brands in the market, source the freshest, most inventive ingredients, select unique glassware, and intentionally create memorable cocktails that people enjoy. This restaurant is a testament to the strength, beauty, and unity of our Brooklyn family, bringing a touch of the islands to our beloved city.”
Also featured at Continent Brooklyn are wines from the Black women-owned brand iBest, and wines from the globally-sourced Locations brand and St. Helena, California-based brand Orin Swift.
For more information, visit brookandlyneating.com or @continentbrooklyn on Instagram.
For reservations, visit Resy.om.
###
Photo: The new Continent Brooklyn at Hotel Indigo Williamsburg (Photo credit - Jillian Lenser)
About Hotel Indigo Williamsburg
Nestled in the heart of Brooklyn, the ultra-contemporary Hotel Indigo Williamsburg welcomes travelers and locals to its home in one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods. With unbeatable on-site subway access, the local neighborhood and the entire city are at the fingertips of every Hotel Indigo Williamsburg guest. The property offers modern amenities, including a pool, open-air sun deck, coffee bar, fitness center, and large outdoor courtyard garden and fire pit. 187 pet-friendly guest rooms are fitted with dedicated workspaces plus 26 suites, including bi-level Loft Suites. Guest rooms boast spa-inspired bathrooms, hardwood floors, and large balconies from which spectacular views of Brooklyn and the historic Manhattan skyline can be enjoyed. Designed by Kutnicki Bernstein Architects and Cl-oth Interiors, the interiors reflect the area's rich history and many industrial warehouse conversions that have played a role in developing Williamsburg’s unique brand of ‘cool.’
Contact
Nestor Lara Baeza
Xhibition International
(347) 624 8533