A Full Belly

august is for chinese street food

"August is shaping up to be an exciting month for fans of Chinese street food," says New York Magazine and gosh, I think they might be right, with two newly-opened purveyors of cheap tasty treats opening in recent weeks: Province in Tribeca (Church & Walker) serves meat-filled mantous for $3.50-$3.75, and Roll and Dough in the West Village (West 3rd near 6th Ave) is the Manhattan outpost of Elizabeth Ting, the lady known to Chowhounders as the Flushing Bing lady for her delicious bings, flat packages of sesame-seed encrusted dough with all sorts of delicious things inside. Lots of photos here, taken by The Girl Who Ate Everything.

new restaurants

NYC Manhattan User's Guide: New & Notable Restaurants. I see a trip to the new Bryant Park 'wichcraft kiosks in my very near future, Bouley Bakery and Yumcha somewhere further along the timeline.

Westville East?

Looks like the popular West Village spot, Westville, has begun work on a second location on East 14th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. No word yet on when "Westville East" will open.

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of February 9th:

Bleecker Street Pizza, 69 Seventh Avenue South; 212-924-4466: "While we’ve never met an Italian Kenny before, the proof is in the pie, says Greenwood. After 27 years on the force, he’s never come across a slice quite like the one his new partner has adapted from his grandmother’s recipe—thin crust, fresh mozzarella, homemade marinara, and Parmesan. “More of a gourmet slice,” says the captain. So after his retirement, he lured Kenny away from the Huntington, Long Island, pizza parlor where he was working, and together the two brazenly opened up shop within garlic-knot-tossing distance of the venerable slice joint Joe’s. “I would not have done it so close,” says Greenwood, “if I did not feel that we have a slice that was absolutely fantastic.”

Gimme! Coffee, 495 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; 718-388-7771: "Gimme! is the first New York City outpost of the small Ithaca-based roastery of the same name, and with espresso blends like Leftist and Platinum Blonde, you might say that it really is the anti-Starbucks. An interesting range of beans (available at the shop or by mail order) is remarkably fresh and skillfully roasted, from light and complexly acidic to full and dark but never burnt. The in-house drip coffee is terrific, and best of all, the friendly barista can pull a near-perfect, crema-cushioned espresso."

Bello Sguardo, 410 Amsterdam Ave.; 212-873-6252: "Giving the small-plate trend a multiculti tweak, this Upper West Side newcomer serves Spanish tapas, Italian antipasti, and Turkish meze on dishware from the appropriate country of origin. The rest of the menu touches down in familiar territory, from pasta to steak-frites."

Café Regular, 318 11th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn; (no phone): "With its elegant décor and hard-boiled egg rack, this one-table Park Slope café has a certain je ne sais quoi that eludes the nearby Tea Lounge and Ozzie’s. The owner comes from Ireland, the pastries from Marquet, and the house brew, La Colombe’s estimable Corsica blend, from Philadelphia."

Oasis, 161 N. 7th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; 718-218-7607: "Perfectly situated to capture the young and the ravenous exiting and entering the Bedford Avenue subway stop, this fluorescently lit Middle Eastern joint supplements typical pita-parlor fare with novelties like vegetarian kibbeh and a flat pie adorned with onion, pine nuts, and sumac. But unless you keep a close eye on the assembly of your fried-to-order falafel sandwich, it will be overstuffed to the breaking point."

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of January 19th:

Cube 63, 63 Clinton St.; (212) 228-6751: "Cube 63, a sleek, stylish Japanese place with a sushi bar. An investment-bank controller by day, Lai designed the twenty-seat spot and left the kitchen in the capable hands of her husband, Ken Lau, and his brother, Ben Lau, veterans of raw-fish redoubts like BondSt and Otabe. They’ve put together a greatest-hits menu that starts with gyoza and works its way up to omakase dinners starting at $30." [Ebway on Cube 63.]

Carvão, 1477 Second Ave., at 77th St.; (212) 879-4707: "[C]hef-owner Antonio Francesco’s. . . rustic country taverna specializing in hearty Iberian-influenced dishes like a Portuguese clam pot, caldo verde, and whole sardines, steak, and chicken churrasco cooked over a wood-fired grill. A warm welcome, low prices, wood beams, and a working fireplace add to the down-home effect."

Café Haiti, Central Park West at 79th St.; (212) 769-5100: "On January 17 and 18, coinciding with “The Haitian Experience” at the American Museum of Natural History, the 77th Street lobby will be temporarily transformed into a Haitian café serving national specialties like lambi (conch chowder), barbecued goat with red beans and rice, and the creamy rum-and-coconut-milk drink called crémasse."

HK, 523 Ninth Ave., at 39th St.; (212) 947-4208: "Part quasi-industrial coffee shop, part gleaming bar and lounge, this Hell’s Kitchen newcomer is named for its neighborhood and determined to satisfy all its food-and-drink needs—from bagels and Belgian waffles to new-wave martinis and late-night escargots."

Sugar Sweet Sunshine, 126 Rivington St.; (212) 995-1960: "The West Village’s beloved Magnolia Bakery begat Buttercup, and now its ex-employees have started spreading the buttercream gospel to new lands, like Billy’s in Chelsea and this funky Lower East Side storefront, where childhood can be revisited for the price of a brownie, cupcake, or slice of old-fashioned layer cake."

Sushi Sennin @ 81, 1420 Third Ave., nr. 81st St.; (212) 249-4992: "Long a secret of Murray Hill sushiphiles, this little-known, much-loved sushi bar spawns an uptown outpost that’s twice the size (and just a bit more upscale). Master chef Matsu will be shuttling between them, overseeing the meticulous production of sushi, sashimi, and novelties like “carpaccio crunch” and sautéed foie gras."

Casa Mono and Bar Jamón

Walking down Irving Place earlier today, I took a few photos of Casa Mono and Bar Jamón, the soon to be opened and newly opened ventures of Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich. Not surprisingly, preliminary reviews have been very positive.

Casa Mono, 52 Irving Place
Bar Jamón, 125 E 17th St., (212) 253-2773

NYTimes on Casa Mono and Bar Jamón:

With BAR JAMÓN, 125 East 17th Street, MARIO BATALI and JOSEPH BASTIANICH have turned their attention to Spain. Diners at tall counter-style tables can choose from a menu of about two dozen tapas, like tender calamari on a toasted baguette, two kinds of Spanish ham (jamón) and anchovies on a bed of chorizo-flavored bread crumbs. Mr. Batali and Mr. Bastianich, both of Babbo and Otto fame, have the chef ANDY NUSSER preparing the dishes next door at CASA MONO, another new spot of theirs that is opening in a week or so at 52 Irving Place. Casa Mono will have a more elaborate menu of small plates, and seats at 20 tables and 2 bars. Unlike Bar Jamón, it will eventually accept reservations.

(A very large and legible version of the menu is here.)

NYMetro on Casa Mono and Bar Jamón.

Gotham Gal had a few bites of things to come at Casa Mono.

Sustenance declares Bar Jamón "tiny but fantastic."

Chowhound reviews of Bar Jamón: (1) and (2)

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of December 8th:

Half Wine Bar Lounge (626 Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Heights; 718-783-4100): "For art director Max Jerome and his wife, Patty (pictured), who live around the corner, the ultimate bar serves wine by the half-bottle and (as soon as the electric kitchen’s up and running) cheese, charcuterie, and upscale panini, like a sandwich of Neal’s Yard Montgomery Cheddar and mango chutney."

Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse (440 Ninth Avenue, near 34th Street; 212-244-0005): "A 48-ounce dry-aged porterhouse, a 24-foot mahogany bar, twenty types of single-malt scotch, an “El Presidente” room, and an opening-party guest list that includes Judith Regan. . . "

ONE Little West 12th (1 Little West Twelfth Street; 212-255-9717): ". . . Nearly everything on his menu is meant to be shared, from Thai-marinated squid tempura and seared Kobe beef in butter lettuce to the $90 Celestial plateau de mer."

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of November 17th:

NYMetro has the scoop on the rumored expansion of al di là I posted about earlier this week -- "Al Di Là Vino provides another option. Part holding pen, part cichetti bar, the twelve-seat spot has a snacky menu almost as enticing as the one next door, with dishes like sarde in saor, lardo, pepperonata, one daily pasta, and one main dish, plus 25 wines available by the glass. It all sounds so good, you’ll probably have to wait to get in." (607 Carroll Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Bôi (246 East 44th Street): "This week, with the opening of Bôi, the resilient family establishes an American beachhead in midtown, where siblings Antee and Tamie (Bôi’s general manager and cook, respectively) have an unlikely partner: Bill Yosses, Citarella pastry chef and a longtime family friend, who’s doing the desserts. . . . The desserts may be interpretive, but everything else on Bôi’s menu, from an assortment of cold rolls and herb-scented salads to sizzling Saigon crêpes, is “very authentic, very Vietnamese,” according to the French-trained Yosses, who remains at Citarella but relishes the chance to veer off in a Vietnamese direction. “I love the aesthetics, I love the philosophy. And the food is delicious.”

Restaurant 718 (35-01 Ditmars Boulevard, Astoria): ". . .Restaurant 718, the collaborative effort of three Frenchmen who met working at L’Absinthe: pastry chef Raphael Sutter, manager Guillaume Magnani, and Alain Allaire, whose day job is executive chef at Suba. That, no doubt, is where Allaire acquired the Spanish accent that has insinuated its way into his 718 menu, in dishes like grilled tuna with chorizo and soy-cherry sauce, and roasted duck with Serrano ham. The bar menu is even more multiculti, featuring tarte flambée, chicken-chorizo skewers, and, in a nod to the neighborhood, tsatsiki with endive."

Asiate (80 Columbus Circle, at 60th St.): "Thomas Keller and the rest of the big guns won’t make their Columbus Circle debuts till next February, but the ballyhooed Time Warner Center is scheduled to get its first serious restaurant this week at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Chef Nori Sugie trained in France and Japan, cooked at Charlie Trotter’s and Tetsuya’s in Australia, and has an enviable backdrop for his French-Japanese fusion: Central Park and the Manhattan cityscape from 35 floors up."

Orchard 88 (88 Orchard St.): "In an effort to support local suppliers, the owners of this bright, roomy café buy their coffee beans from Irving Farm, their muffins from Clinton Street Baking Company, and their bread from Blue Ribbon Bakery—all of which make it a welcome respite for the hungry hordes departing the Lower East Side Tenement Museum across the street. There’s oatmeal and waffles for breakfast, salads and sandwiches for lunch, and soon, beer and wine."

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of November 3rd:

Mandler’s: The Original Sausage Co. (26 East 17th Street): ". . . [S]ausages are nine and a half inches long, swaddled in custom-made rolls—an Americanized version of the crusty Euro paradigm—and topped with everything from tahini and jalapeños to horseradish mustard. Besides offering the traditional wurst, Mandler’s sells seafood, veggie, and poultry varieties, some available sans bun as “healthy plates.” But don’t expect Mandler to stray too far from his cherished sausage sandwich. “I’m not a food person,” he says, “but this is the love of my life.” "

I Tre Merli Bistro (183 West 10th Street): ". . . [T]he nook aspires to be more hangout than bustling scene, which accounts for entrée prices no higher than $14 and, eventually, all-day service, from eggs and doughnuts for breakfast to panini and salads at lunch and Italian steak-frites for dinner."

Chai Home Kitchen (124 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn): ". . . But throughout her French-kitchen stints, she never lost the vibrant Thai seasoning that enlivens Chai’s grilled-beef and roast-duck salads, served on artisanal Thai pottery. Sweet Chinese sausage with chili vinaigrette, Vietnamese pork chops, and vegetarian duck add to Chai’s Pan-Asian appeal, as will the Japanese tapas Fukuda plans to serve with sake once the liquor license arrives. There’s more than one way, after all, to curry favor."

Openings

NYMetro restaurant openings for the week of October 27th:

Sui (54 Spring Street): "At Sui, opening this week in Soho, sushi rolls come wrapped in prosciutto, slathered with Thai peanut sauce, and drizzled with salsa. The eclectic menu doesn’t stop there: Beyond the waterfall and the fish tanks, the kitchen, led by co-owner and executive chef Adam Roth, turns out buffalo carpaccio with foie gras and a teapot for two of seafood-miso soup."

Les Enfants Terribles (37 Canal Street): ". . . globetrotting partners Fabrice Vautrin (of Le Père Pinard) and Stéfan Jonot, a documentary filmmaker, plumbed their collective travels for culinary and decorative inspiration, to which they applied an atmospheric French Colonial veneer. Add a chef from the Ivory Coast to the multi-culti mix, and you’ve got a menu that features steak tartare and escargots alongside bacon-wrapped scallops with fried plantains and Senegalese rice. Soon serving breakfast, too."

Belleville (330 Fifth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn): ". . . But what makes it a boon for the ever-burgeoning Fifth Avenue restaurant row is a not quite predictable menu that combines standards like duck confit and steak-frites with offbeat digressions like fazzoletti pasta with braised beef cheek, and calf’s liver with polenta and fig vinaigrette. Small plates of preserved tuna with lemon and capers and watermelon-goat-cheese salad offset the heartier fare. You may feel transported to Paris, but the kids’ menu (ham-and-cheese sandwich, angel hair with tomato sauce) is pure Park Slope."