“Being approachable, maybe even a little familiar, and straightforward are all a part of this vision of being a casual neighborhood spot,” says chef Ryan McLaughlin, co-owner of Nines, the new restaurant in Germantown.
After a few friends and family nights to iron out the kinks, Nines opened to the public on April 10, in the iconic, deep blue building formerly home to Gaskins. In a word, the culinary concept at Nines is “riviera,” specifically the Liguria region, which captures “where French, Italian, and coastal cooking often converge,” says McLaughlin.
The project—a little bit kismet and lotta bit chops—is a collaboration between McLaughlin and his life partner Avery Jannelli, a fellow service industry veteran whom he met in Philadelphia where she was working as the director of special projects for High Street Hospitality restaurant group. At the time, McLaughlin was consulting on a project with Other Half Brewing, which had him back and forth between Philadelphia and his home base in the Hudson Valley.
In summer 2024, Jannelli wrapped a project and recognized the moment for the “break in the waves” that it was. “I told Ryan, ‘We should make this move now before I get sucked into another project.’” So they packed up, Jannelli saying goodbye to a professional network nearly two decades in the making, and moved to Kingston.
“The presentation is simple, the food is not obscured. The intention is flavors that are alive and vibrant, with a lot of care for the garnishes.”
—Ryan McLaughlin, chef and co-owner at Nines
When they landed in the Hudson Valley, Jannelli took a job as a GM at Inness in Accord and McLaughlin as chef at Mirador in Kingston, while they privately schemed their next move. “We were not actively looking for a restaurant space,” Jannelli says. “We knew we wanted to work together, we wanted to create opportunities for each other to grow. But this just kind of happened.”
The couple found out that Nick and Sarah Suarez, owners of Gaskins and longtime friends of McLaughlin’s, were quietly looking for a buyer. They began to contemplate the feasibility of the undertaking. “A part of the reason why this opportunity was so appealing was knowing there was so much goodwill built in with the community,” Jannelli says, a truth that has been borne out by the turnout during Nines’ opening weeks. “We’re really fortunate to have a ton of interest and excitement and really a need for a restaurant in this location. We already have lots of Gaskins regulars behind us.”
The purchase of the building took a year, the sale closing in December 2025. Renovations were light, the building’s turnkey condition another major selling point. “We basically thrifted a restaurant,” Jannelli jokes. “We sustained use of so much that is here.” Working with Constant Van Hoeven, the same master carpenter who had done the original Gaskins buildout in 2014, and his wife Catherine, an interior designer, Jannelli and McLaughlin focused their renovations on giving Nines its own aesthetic identity, adding soundproofing to tamp down the dinner din, and improving the layout and flow for service.
“It’s nice to do a renovation when you can see how the space was functioning as a restaurant before,” Jannelli says. “Ryan and I are restaurant workers, so we look at space through the eyes of someone who has to work there every day. Most of our changes were to make it easier to work in.”
A fresh coat of paint on the entire interior, fresh hardware and light fixtures, and an intensive rehabilitation of the old hardwood floors helped accomplish the “lighter and brighter” look the duo was going for. “We’re in this really pretty, historic building,” Jannelli says, “so we wanted to mix in some clean, contemporary touches in a nice way and let those things talk to each other.”
But enough about interiors. Let’s talk food.
Liguria: Luxurious but Laidback
“The first time I saw The French Laundry Cookbook, I wanted to learn how to make food look like that,” McLaughlin says. Out of high school, he moved to New York City to attend culinary school and took his first job at Blue Hill, where he was mentored by Juan Cuevas who had been trained in the style of Alain Ducasse. “It was a very quiet, cerebral kitchen, and vegetables as the focus resonated with me,” he says. “I learned from Juan this style that involves French technique, leans on Italian ingredients, and uses cooking processes that concentrate flavor. It’s refined yet casual.” It’s no coincidence that this is similar to how he describes the food at Nines.
“Considering the idea of Nines made me examine and articulate what my cooking is,” McLaughlin says. “I’ve been channeling Ducasse (subconsciously) for a long time. The presentation is simple, the food is not obscured. The intention is flavors that are alive and vibrant, with a lot of care for the garnishes.”
They are already working with Pierless Fish and Egremont-based Pesca & Company for seafood—clams, swordfish, hake, soft shell crabs, Boston mackerel—and nearby farms for produce and meat, including MX Morningstar, Northwind, Plain Meadow, and Kinderhook Farm. “There were farms around us in Philly but not as up close and personal as this,” Jannelli says. The wood-fired oven is also at the center of cooking.
The debut Nines menu includes lighter starters like a mackerel crudo in butternut squash and aji amarillo vinaigrette, with paprika and almonds ($23) and a shaved fennel and artichoke salad, served with yogurt, blood orange, bottarga, arugula, and crispy artichoke chips ($21). The bright green spring pasta dish, a housemade strozzapreti, sings with the season’s flavors: asparagus, ramps, and pea leaves, alongside fava beans and the punch of parmesan ($26). Other highlights include the roast chicken fricasse (with dandelion pesto, $34) and the Ligurian-style branzino, with a relish of taggiasca olives, pine nuts roasted tomato, with fresh oregano and potatoes ($30).
The core menu will shift seasonally, with minor ongoing tweaks following the produce cycle more closely. (“I’m looking forward to getting bluefish and great quality cured tuna heart from Spain (and tuna in general) to serve with tomatoes this summer!” an excited McLaughlin says.) But there will be some anchor menu items, including a burger ($21) meant to stay accessible for any who want to drop in regularly. “We want to make sure there are things that people can expect,” Jannelli says “We’ll see what hits.”
Nailing the kids menu, with its chicken nuggets, mini burger, and grilled cheese, was also important to McLaughlin and Jannelli. “It’s really important to us to be a family-friendly and kid-friendly restaurant,” she says.
On the grown-up side, the wine list has some 50+ options by the bottle, leaning heavily French and Italian, though Jannelli aims to incorporate more American options in the future. Of these, seven or so are available by the glass, spanning all the major food groups: red, white, rose, bubbles, and skin-contact. “The thinking was to be approachable and show typicity,” Jannelli says. “We want to have guests to know what to expect and not be surprised. We’re in pursuit of quality at an affordable price point.”
The same straightforward logic applies to the cocktails, which, quips aside, are more or less exactly what they claim to be (Many Hectares in a Dirty Martini; Negroni, Extra Italian to name a couple).
“We don’t want to push an agenda. We want to see what people gravitate toward,” Jannelli says of the wine program, though really it could apply to every aspect of Nines, which she and McLaughlin earnestly want to become a neighborhood spot. “We want to be an easy restaurant, no curve balls, where what you expect is indeed what is going to happen.”
Tweaking for Perfection
“The whole beginning of this was about making it exist, making it function,” Jannelli says. “Now we have something to work with and something to practice our craft on. This is the fun part—where we can dial it in and make it work optimally.”
French in technique, coastal Italian in spirit, informed by local farms, and characterized by the relaxed generosity of a good table, in just a few weeks, Nines is already carving out its place in the local community.
Nines
2 Church Avenue, Germantown, NY 12526
