Opening
Quick Eternity
When it comes to Moby Dick, Bryan Schneider, the bar director at Quality Branded, is less obsessed than Ahab. But not by much. Having read the book, he’s held the notion of a whaling tavern for some time and has now beached it in the cobbled lanes of the Seaport District. Decorated with a maritime mural by the artist Azikiwe Mohammed, it also has a slab of polished driftwood as the bar. Upstairs is the Gam, a bookable private room stocked with copies of “Moby Dick.” Mr. Schneider’s cocktails include the Rachel, with bourbon and Madeira, named for the ship that rescued Ishmael. The food, by Antonio Mora, looks to New England with several takes on chowder, sailor’s soda bread, corn dog-style lobster tails and sticky toffee pudding.
22 Peck Slip (Water Street), quicketernity.nyc.
Hudson VU Rooftop
The INK 48 Hotel at the western edge of Hell’s Kitchen counters its remoteness with stunning views from its upper floors. This latest indoor-outdoor iteration on the 16th floor has the executive chef Samuel-Drake Jones in charge, serving uni and caviar tea sandwiches, grilled heirloom carrots and hanger steak with homemade kimchi, in the glass-enclosed main dining room, bar and outdoors. He will also be the executive chef at Hudson Local, a farm-to-table dining room, on street level in the fall. (Opens Thursday)
INK 48 Hotel, 653 11th Avenue (48th Street), 646-212-1546,
JaBä
The chef Tony Inn is interpreting the food of his native Taiwan at his first restaurant. On a relatively concise menu served in a graciously appointed room, he’s offering oyster omelet; stinky (fermented) tofu with pickled cabbage; pickled celtuce; salt-cured whole mackerel; basil-garlic clams; fried pig’s ears with Kewpie mayo; five-spice grilled pork jowl; aged sa cha beef ribs; beef noodle soup; and crème brûlée, for which he swaps out the custard for sweet potato. (Opens Wednesday)
230 East 58th Street, 212-256-1468, jabanyc.com.
Bar Bianchi
The restaurateurs Jon Neidich and Craig Atlas of Golden Age Hospitality, known for the Nines, Acme and Elvis, have added this airy trattoria style bar and restaurant with rattan chairs that spill out onto the sidewalk, ready for a warm-weather spritz or sgroppino. It’s a collaboration with Paradise Projects. The executive chef, Nicole Gajadhar, taps a familiar Italian playbook for fried zucchini, rigatoni with sausage and peas, beef carpaccio, veal Milanese for two and ricotta cheesecake.
5 Avenue A (East Houston Street), barbianchinyc.com.
Mustard Indian Eatery
There’s a tandoor on view in the open kitchen, the walls are faced with subway tiles, and light floods in from the windows at this Indian spot. It combines the tried-and-true — butter chicken, tandoori shrimp, seekh kebab, assorted biryanis, gulab jamun — with less familiar fare like slow-cooked goat with chiles, Goan shrimp curry and fish in a banana leaf. A varied array of chutneys are offered. The owner, Ruhel Amin, has other Indian restaurants, and has appointed Sharmeen Rahman and Lisha Khondokar to be chefs. The restaurant is B.Y.O.B., unless you prefer the house’s Calcutta lemonade. (Wednesday)
2113 Frederick Douglass Boulevard (114th Street), 212-470-1568, mustardnyc.com.
Jang by Chef Tae Woo Lee
A six-course tasting menu ($130) by the chef Tae Woo Lee, who puts a French designer spin on Korean fare with dishes like gochujang bouillabaisse, is now being served at Spring Place, a membership club with dining and drinking facilities and work spaces in TriBeCa. The new restaurant is open to the public and over coming months will welcome guest chefs.
Spring Place, 6 St. Johns Lane (Canal Street), 212-257-5620.
Cariñito
You cannot accuse artificial intelligence of coming up with this taco menu: smoked pastrami with Chinese mustard; Thai shredded pork belly with pork chicharrón and mint; or spiced pork belly with hoisin, Sriracha and pickles, among others. They’re at a six-month pop-up from a Mexico City restaurant known for its mash-up of Southeast Asia and Mexico, which has done pop-ups in a number of cities but not in the United States until now.
86 University Place (12th Street), @carinito.tacos.
Raw Bar at Time & Tide
Kent Hospitality’s new seafood restaurant with Danny Garcia at the helm is getting a makeover, most notably with a separate raw bar installed in the rear that serves lunch by day and chilled seafood at night. The main dining room has also shed its original “steakhouse” approach for a more straightforward presentation with pastas involving seafood, but it has kept its oversize, showstopping pastry “goldfish,” now offering them free of charge.
48 East 26th Street, 212-257-7677, timeandtide.nyc.
The Mark Clam Bar
As the seasons rotate, so does the food served in the sidewalk enclosures that hem the Mark Hotel. This summer’s edition is a bright red minimalist shed with just a few tables. The littlenecks on the half shell will set you back $6.50 each before you daub on some caviar from Caviar Kaspia, which is also participating in the venture with Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The substantial lobster roll is $40 (without caviar), though small fish tacos, $36, and one-bite king crab arancini, $32, come with the precious roe.
The Mark Hotel, 25 East 77th Street, 212-606-3030, themarkhotel.com.
Branches
Nerolab
This chain of restaurants in food halls in and around Rome has opened a flagship in New York’s financial district, in a sprawl that previously was to be a Dean & DeLuca. It offers counter service for breakfast and waiter service for lunch and dinner, serving a fairly standard Italian menu with an emphasis on Roman items like pinsas and carbonara. Tables seating more than 200 arranged throughout the space include some clustered around a fire pit. A kiosk selling some of the food and coffee has also been installed in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
40 Wall Street (William Street), 646-454-9666, nerolab.us.
Looking Ahead
‘The Contemporary African Kitchen’
To celebrate the publication of their book that showcases recipes and essays by chefs and writers representing African food today, Alexander Smalls and Nina Oduro will be the hosts at a dinner at Marcus Samuelsson’s Hav & Mar prepared by the executive chef Fariyal Abdullahi. The menu will include Egyptian falafel, fonio salad, South African braai and cookie banana pudding.
May 19, 6 p.m., $135 plus tax and tip, and $45 for optional book, 245 11th Avenue (26th Street), opentable.com/r/hav-and-mar-new-york.
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Florence Fabricant is a food and wine writer. She writes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns, as well as the Pairings column, which appears alongside the monthly wine reviews. She has also written 12 cookbooks.
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