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On the busiest night of the year, each of Wythe’s event spaces is completely booked: an extravagant wedding in the Main Hall, a private candlelit dinner in the Cellar, a milestone retirement celebration in the Penthouse Loft, and a birthday bash in Bar Blondeau packing every booth and banquet and spilling out onto the patio.
While guests gather, mingle, and enjoy themselves; in the kitchens, the Wythe events team is grinding to make sure that even at their busiest, quality is never sacrificed.
On a Tuesday evening in Early June, Chef Ulisses Junior is crouched over several plates of Romano Beans dressed with herb pistou, fromage blanc, and controne, assembling them with meticulous attention. To his right, Sous Chef Edi quickly, yet delicately spears Pork Belly canapés, which are complimented with apple, cabbage, and mustard.
“In a restaurant, you do 200-300 covers in a night. We [the events team] can do that sometimes in an hour or two because we are a multivenue place, and if everything is booked, we can easily hold 350 people here and sometimes it's all at the same time,”
Without exchanging too many words, they are perfectly choreographed in the narrow passage of the kitchen. Today’s schedule is relatively light with a cocktail party of 50 people in the Garden Terrace and a tasting for soon-to-be Wythe Wedding couples. It's on quieter nights like this that the team prepares for weekends when every room is full.
“In a restaurant, you do 200-300 covers in a night. We [the events team] can do that sometimes in an hour or two because we are a multivenue place, and if everything is booked, we can easily hold 350 people here and sometimes it's all at the same time,” says Ulisses.
Each event also includes a fully tailored menu with different selections between each course, so Ulisses and his team have to be focused, prepared, and always looking ahead. “There’s never a sane day in my life,” says Ulisses. Watching the kitchen, it seems effortless.
Each event also includes a fully tailored menu with different selections between each course, so Ulisses and his team have to be focused, prepared, and always looking ahead. “There’s never a sane day in my life,” says Ulisses. Watching the kitchen, it seems effortless.
This September, Ulisses celebrates 5 years at Wythe. When he first joined, he came on part-time as a cook, thinking the job would simply supplement his private chef business. As time went on, he decided to fully commit and was promoted to Sous Chef and then to Chef.
Ulisses grew up in Brazil. To learn English, he enrolled in language school and watched plenty of American television, including Top Chef, the competitive cooking show that first stirred his interest in food.
He began his career as an intern at D.O.M. in São Paulo, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, where his eagerness to start working required him to fabricate his age. "It's kind of like lying to go to the Army," says Ulisses.
From there, he joined the ranks of other kitchens, building his experience in European-style cooking at brassieres and bistros across Brazil before moving to The United States after a friend called him up and asked him to join the opening team of a new restaurant. His focus then shifted to mostly Asian-style cuisines. Most recently, he worked at Llama San, a Japanese Peruvian restaurant in the East Village that earned three-stars by the New York Times before it closed its doors in 2025.
At Wythe, Ulisses works closely with Head Chef Aidan O'Neal to develop seasonal menus that showcase ingredients at their peak. One of the summer dishes he prepared for us was a Kohlrabi and Melon Salad featuring a vegan vinaigrette inspired by the flavors of fish sauce and made with fermented vegetables, lime, ginger, garlic, and soy.
"The direction we want to take here is staying as close to French as possible, but we've learned that, in banquets, that doesn't always apply. So we always try to bring in international influences. If you take a look at our canapés, there are a lot of Asian flavors.”
