NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of September 29th:
Pop Burger (58–60 Ninth Avenue): "During the day, a streetside fast-food counter dispenses burgers, dogs, onion rings, and fries. At night, there’s the added attraction of the back room, a luxe pool hall and lounge outfitted with low-slung banquettes, a kicky sound system, and its own limited snacky menu."
Sample Conservas (152 Smith Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn): "For their second venture together, chef-partners Josh Cohen and Maio Martinez have gone from one extreme—the labor-intensive, slow-cooked Carolina-style barbecue at Biscuit—to another. At Sample Conservas, the kitchen is relieved from cooking altogether: Ingredients arrive jarred, canned, pre-smoked, salt-cured, or air-dried, and the prep work involves little more than a can opener and a slotted spoon. Inspired by a conserva bar in Spain, this type of restaurant makes things easy on the kitchen (unless the “chef” is confronted with a recalcitrant lid)."
Bao Noodles (391 Second Avenue, near 23rd Street): "Michael Huynh, chef-architect of the East Village hotspot Bao 111, has won a lot of fans with his sophisticated Vietnamese cooking, and they’re clamoring for more. Hence the more casual, inexpensive, and soup-centric Bao Noodles, where Huynh focuses on four distinct Vietnamese cooking styles—Mekong River, Hanoi, Saigon, and Hue—each represented by a $15 prix fixe family-style meal. He rounds out the menu with spring and summer rolls, seared-beef and seafood salads, clay-pot and stir-fried specialties, and, of course, oodles of noodles. Takeout and delivery, too."
Australian Homemade (115 St. Marks Pl.): "Another high-design sweet shop in the Rice to Riches mode, this one plies chocolates and fancy, airy ice cream, in flavors like mocha hazelnut and strawberry cheesecake."
Candle 79 (154 E. 79th St.): "This bigger, ritzier branch of Candle Cafe entices Upper East Siders to eat their vegetables—not to mention their beans, grains, and tofu."
Matsuri (88 Ninth Ave.): "Tadashi Ono’s home-style Japanese cooking seems the perfect match for the subterranean restaurant and sushi bar at the Maritime Hotel, sure to become many a hipster’s high-style home away from home."
PM (50 Gansevoort St.): "The meatpacking district’s latest lounge has a Haitian theme, a Creole tapas menu, and a design scheme that its publicists compare to “a forsaken gentleman’s club in the tropics.” "
