Sixty restaurants later, Lois Freedman is still the person who “always tells it how it is,” reports Thessaly Laforce, on a recent visit to the new ABC Kitchens in Dumbo, Brooklyn, where Freedman, the co-chief executive and president of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants, "has spent months meticulously renovating and decorating, sourcing glassware and teacups on eBay auctions and furniture at antique flea markets."