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A Blue Hill, Eleven Madison Park and COTE alum is planning a hyper-seasonal American restaurant in the former Yum Cha space at 228 Thompson Street, between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets. Jason Cho and Mark Bayer are both listed as principals on the liquor license application for the restaurant, which will be called Cypher. Caper Media recently identified Bayer as the chef of Runner Up, a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in Brooklyn.
Cho went before Community Board 2’s SLA Committee on Tuesday, October 6, and told the committee the menu will change every week based on what’s available at the Union Square Greenmarket. He explained that the name comes from the hip-hop “cypher” of the 1970s and ’80s, when rappers would improvise over beats they’d never heard before, the same way jazz musicians improvise. “This is actually the ethos of the cooking,” he said.
The application describes Cypher as an American restaurant with a “playful, hyper-seasonal” menu that focuses on quality produce and pays tribute to nostalgic American cuisine. The sample menu submitted to the board is labeled as a potential April 2027 menu. First courses include brown bread with brown butter ($3 a piece), Hudson Valley shrimp toast with preserved ramps ($16 a piece) and lobster rangoons with habanada pepper jam ($20 for two). Mid courses include Maine diver scallops with white asparagus and Tokyo turnips ($26) and heirloom corn agnolotti with bacon and mâche ($26). Mains include Montauk swordfish ($35), Snowdance chicken with ginger, scallion and baby potatoes ($38), and a Beef Wellington for two ($96). The menu says the Wellington takes about 45 minutes, so guests are asked to order it at the start of the meal.
The application says the wine list will feature benchmark producers, many from France, Italy and the U.S., along with up-and-coming winemakers from around the world. The sample list, credited to Cho, has bottles ranging from $65 to $775.
Cho’s resume runs through some of the city’s best-known kitchens. He told the committee he moved to New York in 2011 to attend NYU’s business school, and his first job in the city was with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. He then spent two years at Eleven Madison Park before working for chef Dan Barber at Blue Hill for seven and a half years. Most recently, he was director of operations for COTE and COQODAQ. He said he met his wife, a pastry chef, while they were both working at Blue Hill.
For Cho, the location is personal. He said being close to the Greenmarket was very important to him, and so was being close to Washington Square Park, which he called his community home. “Nothing hits like Washington Square Park,” he said. “I’d like to come home now.”
According to the application, Cypher will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight every day. It’ll have 64 seats: 58 at 18 tables plus six at the bar. There won’t be any TVs. Cho said reservations will open four weeks out through Resy, with the bar seats set aside for walk-ins. When committee member Shirley Smith pointed out the collard greens on the menu, which come with lardo, apple cider and hot sauce, Cho said he was born in South Korea and raised in Northern Virginia, where he grew up eating them.
The application originally listed entertainment-level music, which drew pushback from committee members concerned about noise in the older buildings on the block. Cho agreed to background music only and no subwoofers, and committee chair Donna Raftery said those conditions would be included in the committee’s recommendation. A neighbor who lives across the street told the committee she was happy to see the space taken over by “reputable people,” and committee member Cormac Flynn called it “an excellent application, thorough, complete.”
