Opening
Joomak
This takes the trajectory of the chef Jiho Kim’s career in a more luxurious direction than its Michelin-starred predecessor, Joomak Banjum, which closed in 2024. Mr. Kim, who trained as a pastry chef and has worked at the Modern, brings some of that expertise to the intimate 27-seat jewel box designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen. An 8-course tasting menu ($280) combines Asian, American and French inspirations, like scallop with truffle and smoked dashi panna cotta; king crab with a gochujang tuile; and duck breast with a quince tarte Tatin. (There is also a vegetarian only menu for $250.) A banana bread pudding is a baroque affair involving chocolate mousse, crème brûlée and lychee with a side of butter beer ice cream. (Opens Wednesday)
Ha’s Snack Bar
Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns have taken over this single-lane space (formerly Flynn McGarry’s Gem Wine) to give their popular Ha’s Dac Biet pop-ups a more permanent home. It opened earlier this month. Among some highlights from the ever-changing menu are leeks with oysters and chile crisp, and Anthony’s way with onion soup and branzino with caramelized nuoc mam. The menu reflects their experiences in France and Italy through a Southeast Asian lens; as they advise on Instagram: “everything contains fish sauce.”
El Bar
City Winery already has quite an installation on the food-heavy Pier 57. Now Michael Dorf, the founder, has added this agave bar deep inside its main corridor. El Bar boasts more than 400 iterations of agave, the plant that provides the basis for tequila, mezcal and a host of other libations, along with some adjacent distillates like corn, mango and pineapple. They can be sampled neat, in flights and in cocktails. Beers and wines are also poured. As for something to munch, the choices are much more limited, amounting to guacamole and chips with salsa. (Friday)
Sunday Morning
Every morning is a Sunday at this new bakery that produces only sweet cinnamon buns with more heft than a Quarter Pounder. The cinnamon peeks subtly through on the inside but it’s beside the point; the buns, in 10 flavors, are laden on top and over the top with doses of icing, nuts, fruit and even cheese, all highly Instagrammable. The owners are the chef Armando Litiatco, in partnership with Ahmet Kiranbay; both own Rana Fifteen, an Aegean restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Okaru
Marc Spitzer, who has been the executive chef of the BondSt restaurants for more than 20 years, has opened a restaurant in the village of Roslyn, in Nassau County. With a real estate investor, Noam Shemel, he is putting a creative, sometimes Western spin on Japanese ingredients with dishes like a duck confit salad with blood orange miso and pickled Tokyo turnips, sake-braised short ribs, red miso lamb chops with yuzu potato gratin, and cribbed from his menus at BondSt, bigeye tuna tarts. Chocolate and shiitake dust complicate an espresso martini. It’s in a traditional two-story house given a Japanese aesthetic by Carlita Alexander, a Rockwell Group alum. (Thursday)
Looking Ahead
Strawberry Is Love Cake
Flowers? Chocolates? A bottle of Saint-Amour? Or leave it in the creative hands of Eunji Lee, the owner of the bakery Lysée, and she will fashion a sweetheart of a pastry for your Valentine. The multilayered heart-shaped confection — on a shortbread base piled with vanilla mousse, then paved with ripe strawberries — glistens with rosé Champagne gelée and flakes of gold. It’s $70 and serves about two generously. Orders can be placed now for pickup at the bakery Feb. 4 through 16. Refrigerated, it will hold up for just two days.
New York for Los Angeles
A fund-raiser on Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. in a townhouse at 632 Hudson Street (Jane Street) will benefit emergency medical workers and others affected by the Los Angeles fires. It will feature food from Penny, Claud, 63 Clinton, Hometown BBQ, Estela, Sunn’s and Mitsuru with wines from Parcelle and others.
Tasting Cab Franc From New York State
Anointing a signature varietal for Burgundy would tap pinot noir without a doubt. For New York State? Cabernet Franc was just named by seven wineries in the Finger Lakes, the Hudson Valley and on Long Island. They have organized a consumer tasting of cab francs from across the state, a first, with 25 producers pouring samples on Feb. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. (professionals can sip and spit from 2 to 4 p.m.).
Yellow Magnolia Café
Valentine’s Day is not loved by restaurants. Space is compromised by needing many tables for two, and guests often linger. To compensate, prix fixe menus at ramped-up prices are the rule. An exception is the $65 menu (plus tax and tip) for three courses at the restaurant in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Feb. 14 through 16, that comes with a glass of sparkling wine, free admission to the garden and a chance to visit its bonsai collection. The menu choices include lobster bisque, salmon, risotto with truffles and passion fruit Pavlova.
Closing
Mel’s
After just shy of three years in business, the wood-fired pizzeria adjacent to Al Coro, then the new Crane Club, and run by Melissa Rodriguez, a partner in those restaurants, will close at the end of the month. The restaurant’s website said they were looking for a new location. A spokesperson for the muscular Tao Group Hospitality, which entered the equation last year in a new partnership with Ms. Rodriguez and her co-owner, Jeff Katz, provided no further plans for the space. It is available for buyouts and events.
Shopping
Muji Food Market
The global Japanese-based chain of stores that sell simple, efficient goods for travel, home, and personal use, along with basic clothing, has added food to its lineup in the new store in Chelsea Market in Manhattan, a first for the United States. Items to go or to eat in at a counter include onigiri, sandwiches, Japanese curry cups, miso soup and desserts like matcha muffins and hojicha pudding. Jarvis, a barista bot, will assemble your latte, no tipping necessary.
75 Ninth Avenue (11th Street), muji.us.
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