Grindhaus In Red Hook | Tasting Table NYC

Erin Norris just wanted to open a sausage-centric restaurant in Red Hook.

Hurricane Sandy had other plans.

Erin Norris | The restaurant

Now, years after she began building the restaurant and then rebuilding after the storm, after a successful Kickstarter campaign and a new mortgage on her family's Long Island home, the place is finally a reality–with a twist.

Cracklings with lovage | Chefs Aaron Taber and Leon Douglas

Grindhaus isn't a sausage restaurant anymore. After discovering that the basement was too flood-prone and the kitchen too small to sustain her original idea, Norris decided to scrap the concept. With the help of up-and-coming chefs Aaron Taber and Leon Douglas (both formerly of The Pines), she's settled on an unfussy but offbeat menu evolving daily: Nantucket Bay scallops with pink grapefruit, house-made Greek yogurt and deep green kale juice ($10); maitake mushrooms steamed with brown butter over coconut milk-finished rice and topped with a runny egg ($16).

Merguez with chickpeas

"I can't believe this is really happening. I hope I don't lose control of my bladder," Norris says, not exactly keeping to PR talking points.

We're excited too. Especially about the springy, yeasty house-made sourdough baked in the restaurant's tiny kitchen. Baskets of the stuff are $5, but, fried in melted bone marrow, it really shines as the base for a dish of fish sauce-spiked smoked veal heart tartare ($14).

About that sausage-y moniker: Despite the new concept, Norris says the name still fits. "After all the years of bureaucratic challenges and basically having to start over from scratch after Sandy, it's been a real grind."