Editorial review•Jan 13, 2026
Chef Chloe Coscarelli's return to 185 Bleecker Street is more than a homecoming — it's a corrective. After a very public legal battle with the business partners who wanted to industrialize her brand, Coscarelli walked away from By Chloe and eventually walked back in, reopening the original space as CHLOE: a fully vegan, IKC-certified kosher restaurant that answers directly to her original vision. That context matters. This is a kitchen built around a chef's refusal to compromise, which gives the place a principled sharpness that most plant-forward spots in the West Village can't claim. The price point is accessible, the hours generous (weekday lunch through dinner, weekend brunch from 10am), and the clientele runs from observant diners navigating kosher-vegan overlap to the Bleecker Street lunch crowd who mostly just want food that's genuinely good.
The menu is built around composed salads, plant-based mains, and the baked goods that made Coscarelli famous — she won Food Network's Cupcake Wars as the first vegan chef to do so, and the pastry case reflects that credential. Among the savory dishes, the Quinoa Taco Salad anchors the menu: romaine, white bean quinoa, spicy maple seitan, agave lime dressing — a combination that diners consistently single out for its balance of heat and brightness. The Spicy Cashew Crunch Salad, built on kale, marinated cucumbers, baked tofu, and a cashew dressing, is the kind of dish that converts skeptics. The Classic Burger — house-made plant-based patty, butternut-cashew cheddar, grilled onions on a brioche bun — is the signature for anyone who wants to understand what Coscarelli's kitchen is actually arguing about vegan food.
The room leans intentional-casual: mismatched chairs at a community table, vivid wallpaper, wall art that signals this is not a beige wellness café. The move here is to treat the pastry case as a serious stop — cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins — not an afterthought. Weekend brunch draws crowds; arriving close to the 10am Saturday or Sunday open gets you the full run of baked goods before they move. For solo diners, the community table is the natural seat. Order the Classic Burger and something from the pastry case; that combination is the shortest version of what this kitchen is trying to say.
Priya Sharma, Dining Editor