Maxwells Trading
Maxwells Trading earns its place here because Wu-Bower and Jung have found a genuinely original culinary voice — American cooking that draws on Asian traditions without flattening either.
Set beneath a working rooftop farm on Carroll Avenue, Maxwells Trading organizes its menu into a progression — beginnings, griddle bread and dunks, starch, substance — that feels both loose and deliberately considered. The food pulls from wherever Wu-Bower and Jung's multicultural backgrounds take them on a given day: Japanese eggplant with scallion bread, soup dumpling tortellini with maitake, sweet potato in Thai green curry. The sourcing from the rooftop above is not a marketing prop; it anchors what reaches the table.
The dining room has an industrial-chic ease that suits the cooking's confidence without trying too hard. Service is engaged and knowledgeable. This is the kind of restaurant that earns consistent devotion rather than one-time pilgrimage, which is ultimately a higher compliment.
- Griddle bread with seasonal dunks
- Soup dumpling tortellini
- Japanese eggplant preparation
