Opening
Beut
Korean Royal Court cuisine from the Joseon Dynasty (1392 to about 1900) inspired this tasting-menu restaurant owned by Sarah Kang, the pastry chef here and formerly of Joomak Banjum, the now-closed, Michelin-starred restaurant. An eight-course menu ($125) reflects the opulence of the bygone era through a modern lens by the executive chef, Sang Hoon Jeong. Lobster and Wagyu, not necessarily palace fare in the past, share the menu with more typical abalone with rice porridge, and a royal hot pot with scallops. Lobster three ways using meat, shells and offal demonstrates a tradition of letting nothing go to waste. The dining room is done in muted grays with several seating areas. (Opens Wednesday)
AbcV at the Mark, abc kitchens
It’s spring, so the Alpine chalet at the Mark Hotel has gone into storage and the sidewalk dining area on Madison Avenue has become a white, pink and green outpost of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s vegetarian restaurant, abcV. Expect seasonal vegetable and vegan dishes and fruit-filled drinks. In the fall, for his first Brooklyn venture, Mr. Vongerichten will open a flagship abc kitchens in the Empire Stores in Dumbo. The chef has also recently exported to London the three components of his abc restaurants near Union Square — abc kitchen, abcV and abc cocina — with the title of abc kitchens and planted them in the Emory Hotel in Knightsbridge. (Monday)
Maison Barnes
The mezzanine above the new Café Boulud is where this bar and restaurant with private event rooms has been installed. Daniel Boulud is running the complex for the owner, Barnes International, a Parisian real estate company. The dining room, an exercise in intimate elegance done with green trellis work, offers a concise high-end French menu served with panache. Grilled sea scallops with mâche and black truffles, herb-crusted lamb chops with root vegetables, and a spectacular sea bass in puff pastry for two give you some idea. The Café Boulud menu is also available.
Sawa
Lebanon, a country that’s generous with its hospitality, takes that approach to Park Slope, Brooklyn, in the hands of Samaya Boueri Ziade, the chef; her brother, George Boueri; and Soroosh Golbabae, the chef de cuisine. Menu highlights include mezze like fried cauliflower, grilled squid, and tabbouleh; and entrees like lamb chops with charred scallions, and chargrilled whole dorade. There’s a small retail area for crafts like pottery, spices and other items in the neutral-toned setting with distressed brick and black accents. (Wednesday)
SaiTong
The food of southern Thailand, not the Isan north that’s been whetting appetites in New York for some time, is the focus at this gilded, shimmering theater district spot. Seafood, as in a fiery fish curry salad, and songkhla with rice noodles, pickled squid, curry shrimp and water spinach, shares the menu with pad Thai and pineapple curry.
Zaab Burger
Zaab Zaab, the Thai restaurant with locations in Brooklyn and Queens, has turned its Essex Street Market location into a burger joint. American smash burgers coexist with Thai-inspired renditions, which seem to be making a statement in a few places, inspired by krapow with ground meat and Thai basil, and also larb.
Smorgasburg
There are about 20 new vendors at the weekend outdoor markets that opened last week in the World Trade Center, Williamsburg and Prospect Park. Among them are Emeye Ethiopian Cuisine, Gotcha Focaccia, Lisbonata, Ole & Steen and Virginia Smashburginia.
Shopping
Butterfield Market
This upscale Upper East Side market has doubled its footprint. The newly renovated store with wider aisles now has a sushi bar, sells fresh meat and seafood, and offers pressed sandwiches.
On the Menu
Water Spinach
Mark Yu, the executive chef at 53, the stylish Midtown Chinese restaurant, has just added water spinach, stir-fried like pea shoots, to his menu. B&W Quality Growers in Fellsmere, Fla., cultivates the fast-growing Chinese and Southeast Asian vegetable, also known as ong choy in Cantonese and kangkong in Malay, derived from a Chinese dialect, on regulated farms. (Water spinach is considered to be an invasive species in Florida.) It has crisp, hollow stems, long pointed leaves and a mild flavor at once suggesting spinach and lovage. The restaurant supplier Baldor Specialty Foods sells it, and you can find it at Oceana in Midtown, and other restaurants with Western menus, served with wild rice, lentils and a filet of seared Scottish salmon, and stir-fried to serve over fried tofu.
Looking Ahead
Noma Projects
The research and development division of Noma in Denmark will be on a road trip to New York. From Tuesday through April 19 they will be collaborating with chefs, selling products and doing cooking demonstrations at various locations. The events, on a first-come-first-served basis, are free and tickets are not necessary.
Food, Inc. 2
This sequel to Food, Inc., the 2008 film with Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser digging deep into our industrial food systems and promoting sustainability and “ethical eating,” was inspired in part by the pandemic, when food shortages and the conditions in meatpacking plants made news. In this 94-minute film, the directors, Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo, explore and deplore our profit-driven and unregulated corporate food systems, often multinational, producing “cheap unhealthy food.” There are cameos by legislators like Cory Booker, and interviews with innovative farmers and food producers.
Closed
Anto Korean Steakhouse
The entrepreneur Tony Park has closed the elaborate Korean steak house that he opened in the former Felidia townhouse in Midtown a shade over a year ago. This year, a second-floor chef’s counter was added. The closing, as of April 1, was announced on the restaurant website, with no explanation given.
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