Fried chicken, fine dining and pizza are on the menu across the city.
(Bloomberg) — It’s here: restaurant opening season in New York! Fall is traditionally a time when operators choose to throw open the doors to new establishments as diners return from summer vacation, unfold their napkins and get ready to eat.
If there’s a trend in this year’s openings, it’s established operators with new—and sort-of-new—concepts they’re ready to unleash on the city.
In Williamsburg, chef Missy Robbins and business partner Sean Feeney of Lilia fame have just opened Misipasta, an Italian provisions shop with an aperitivo bar and concise dine-in menu. Simon Kim, owner of popular Korean barbecue spot Cote, is turning his attention to fried chicken at Coqodaq in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, while veteran chef Andrew Carmellini will focus on elegant Italian-French cooking in the sleek, soon-to-open Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Pizza fans—and there are lots of you—will celebrate the arrival in the West Village of two of the city’s most popular slice shops: L’industrie Pizzeria and Mama’s Too!.
Dining options in Midtown will expand when the unstoppable chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten opens his seasonal, fine-dining establishment, Four Twenty Five, on the ground floor of the sparkling new 425 Park Avenue skyscraper. New offerings are also coming to Midtown West, where Marco Prins and Max Natmessnig will launch a new era at the three Michelin-starred Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare, following the unexpected ouster of longtime chef César Ramirez.
Midtown is also home to one of the city’s most highly anticipated places: the debut of Sushi Sho from Keiji Nakazawa, one of the world’s legendary sushi chefs, next to the Andaz 5th Avenue hotel.
Dozens of expansions and smaller openings not listed below include the extension of Frenchette bakery to the Whitney Museum in the West Village and the introduction of à la carte dining and a retail shop in SoHo at beloved Rome export Salumeria Roscioli.
So get ready to make your fall reservations. The following dining spots will be open before you know it.
Misipasta, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
At this experiential alimentari (Italian grocery), Robbins and Fenney are selling the kind of housemade pastas and sauces that made their Brooklyn restaurants Misi and Lilia impossible to get into. “The idea is to give you the tools to cook like I cook in the restaurants, with the ingredients I use,” says Robbins. A short menu of dishes gives shoppers the opportunity to sample products before they buy: Both the anchovies and fennel pollen showcased in the plate of slow-roasted tomatoes with smoked anchovy are for sale; so is the pasta that features in spaghetti with bottarga, lemon and garlicky breadcrumbs.
A hidden garden patio in the back, with its whitewashed space and handful of tables, transport diners straight to Italy.Opened: Aug. 21
Uzuki, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
It’s not easy to find soba noodles made entirely from buckwheat flour, which have an intensely nuttier taste than the ubiquitous short-cut version that’s made with a 20% wheat flour blend. Chef Shuichi Kotani has spent 25 years perfecting the craft and sells Towari, his own brand of packaged buckwheat soba. Now he’s getting ready to serve his specialty to the public at Uzuki, on Guernsey Street in Greenpoint. Buckwheat will be the base for dishes from soba-flavored chips and tofu to ice cream and beer. The star player will be the noodles, served with duck as well as such less conventional options as chutoro sashimi. Unlike the soba noodles commonly served in the US—on a tray alongside a dipping sauce—Uzuki’s take will come with toppings and sauces in the same bowl.Projected Opening: Early September
Mama’s Too!, West Village
Frank Tuttolomondo put curiously topped, chubby, square slices and overstuffed sandwiches on the map at his minuscule Upper West Side pizzeria Mama’s Too!, where pies topped with elote (Mexican-style, mayo-slathered corn) sit alongside ones inspired by cacio e pepe. Now the pizza authority is expanding to a relatively vast 3,000-square-foot plot on Bleecker Street which, unlike his UWS space, will have indoor seating. The same focaccia-style slices and Italian-American sandwiches on house-baked, seeded semolina roll will now be available daily, instead of as an occasional special.
Italian wine and beer will pair with small plates of arancini and potato croquettes. Look out also for gelato flavors such as tiramisu and Charentais melon sorbet, sold by scoop and pint.Projected Opening: Late September
L’industrie Pizzeria, West Village
One of the city’s most popular pizza parlors, the Williamsburg slice shop L’industrie, is also exporting its burrata-topped pies and seasonal sandwiches to Manhattan’s West Village. Co-owner Massimo Laveglia says that his second pizza joint will fire the same New York-style pies that draw long lines in Brooklyn, but the West Village site will offer expanded indoor seating for around 20 guests. At the new outlet, he and co-founder Nicholas Baglivos, partnering with Eataly co-founder Alex Saper and his brother, Adam, will pour a rotating selection of natural wines by the glass.
They’ll also offer their popular soft serve-style gelato and sorbetto in such options as pistachio and Concord grape—made in a Carpigiani machine, the Rolls-Royce of soft serve machines. The design will mimic the industrial stainless steel and brick look of the Brooklyn location.Projected Opening: Late September
Radio Star, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
“We are going for north Italian trattoria meets 1940s USA diner with Mediterranean fare,” says Sara Conklin of the follow-up to her Mediterranean hangout Glasserie. She’s gearing up to introduce Radio Star on Greenpoint Avenue. Helmed by Glasserie chef, Yusuf Lovett, the all-day spot will be decked out with original chrome, soda fountain diner stools and mid-century oak banquette booths. There’s room for 40 inside and for an additional 52 on the sizable outdoor patio. The coastal European menu will include small plates such as puffy, oval-shaped, flatbreads anointed with caramelized onions, anchovy and arugula, and flaky lamb-stuffed phyllo rolls. Drinks will include classic and market-driven cocktails.Projected Opening: Early Fall
Bangkok Supper Club, West Village
From the group behind the fiery Thai spot Fish Cheeks comes this charcoal grill-focused Bangkok Supper Club on Hudson Street. Working out of an open kitchen in an earth-toned, minimalist-style space, Bangkok-born chef Max Wittawat will offer a small-plates menu that reinterprets traditional Thai dishes. His take on Hainanese chicken rice manifests as wings stuffed with sticky ginger and cilantro-root rice. The modernist cocktails, from bartending alum Suwincha Singsuwan (of Bangkok’s Rabbit Hole), highlight such Thai ingredients as nutty-tasting pandan leaves and fish sauce.Projected Opening: September
Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, Midtown West
In early October, the globally-acclaimed dining destination—one of five restaurants in New York with three Michelin stars—will introduce two executive chefs to run the kitchen after management abruptly fired its longtime leader César Ramirez. (The chef shuffle stems from an ongoing lawsuit between Ramirez and owner Moneer Issa.) Chef’s Table vets Max Natmessnig (who most recently lead Munich’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant Alois) and Marco Prins (head chef at Rotterdam’s restaurant Grace) will serve the 18-counter seat and six-table fine dining restaurant; the team may also add an outdoor garden patio area.
Natmessnig and Prins are at work on the food they’ll serve, though the format of a 13-course, $430 tasting menu is not slated to change. One dish that’s in development is grilled French turbot, topped with smoked mussels and lardo and served with a sauce with salted lemon and fig leaf oil. Projected Opening: Oct. 4
Theodora, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Since it started offering modern Middle Eastern food in 2017, Miss Ada has been a breakout hit in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill. At his sophomore effort on Greene Avenue, chef-owner Tomer Blechman will emphasize dry-aged fish and seasonal vegetables cooked over wood fire, with such dishes as four-day aged Spanish mackerel with spicy Mexican chili oil salsa and salmoriglio, the lemon and garlicky Italian condiment, and a Thai-flavored take on falafels with kefir lime and curry. The 75-seat, light-filled dining room will have bar seating in the front and banquettes in the rear, overlooking the open kitchen. To complement the flavor-packed menu, Maggie Dahill is putting together a wine list both global and natural.Projected Opening: October
Café Carmellini, NoMad
Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood has become hotel central, with new openings from Virgin to the Ritz Carlton New York. The latest is the Fifth Avenue Hotel, named for its location between 28th and 29th streets. The ground-floor restaurant will be helmed by Carmellini, whose empire includes Italian power dining spots Locanda Verde and Carne Mare. This 98-seat, à la carte, fine-dining Italian-French spot will feature caviar-garnished lobster cannelloni and brown-butter snapper carpaccio with capers and green grapes. The grand, maximalist-style space with blue banquette seating will be anchored by a pair of massive trees.Projected Opening: October
Metropolis by Marcus Samuelsson, Financial District
New York’s deep culinary diversity has inspired Red Rooster proprietor Marcus Samuelsson in creating his spot in the Financial District’s new Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center complex. The 245-seat, Rockwell Group-designed restaurant comprises an open kitchen-facing dining room, a terrace and a lobby-level lounge, all connected by a flowing ceiling of African sapele wood. The wide-ranging menu will have Flushing, New York-style oyster with XO sauce and braised wagyu short rib served with a za’atar-spiced churro. Bar manager Alexis Belton, of Chicago’s modernist cocktail lounge the Aviary, will serve playful takes on classics as well as a roaming martini cart.Projected Opening: October
Four Twenty Five, Midtown
The unstoppable Vongerichten is expanding his New York footprint with this massive, 14,000-square-foot fine dining restaurant in the 425 Park Avenue tower, in the space originally linked to Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm. Both à la carte and tasting menu options will be on offer, with seasonal, vegetable-forward dishes that Vongerichten will enhance with international accents. Despite the restaurant’s immensity, there will be only 80 seats in the modernist, mezzanine-level dining room, which offers views into the 1,000-square-foot kitchen. A connected bar and lounge with 45-foot ceilings will serve overflow guests.Projected Opening: Late October
Yet-Unnamed Don Angie Restaurant, West Village
Five years after launching their perennially packed Don Angie, chef-owners Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli have a new space for you to sample their inspired Italian-American cooking. The still-unnamed restaurant will open at at 113 Greenwich Ave., next to Don Angie, as a joint venture with Quality Branded operator Michael Stillman. It will contain 55 seats and offer raw fish preparations, antipasti and house-made pastas. There’s no word as to whether the menu will include a version of their signature lasagna pinwheels or Tacinelli’s chicken parmesan pizza.Projected Opening: Late Fall
Coqodaq, Flatiron
Korean barbecue expert Simon Kim has turned his attention to fried chicken. Slated to open on 22nd Street a stone’s throw from his Michelin-starred Cote, the Rockwell Group-designed restaurant and bar will feature traditional Korean patterns and art nouveau touches, as well as family-friendly communal dining tables and banquette seating. Chef Seung Kyu Kim will celebrate the American staple with Korean and French touches.Projected Opening: November
Sushi Sho, Midtown
Many experts consider Sushi Sho in Honolulu to be the most authentic, transportive raw and cured fish experience to be found outside Japan. Nakazawa is relocating to Midtown Manhattan to open a 10-seat omakase counter along with a private, five-seat counter on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 41 Street. (His apprentice of 20 years, Yasushi Zenda, will continue to operate the Hawaii location.) Nakazawa’s team says the New York menu will differ from that in Honolulu, where the chef is known for edomae treatments such as extended seafood aging and hyperlocal sourcing, like Hawaiian seafood.Projected Opening: December
(Removes blurb about Sip & Guzzle due to a conflict of interest with the author of this article.)
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