Opening
Wild Cherry
After the buzzy film studio A24 took over the Cherry Lane, the West Village theater that opened more than 100 years ago, renovations took two years. Its new restaurant and bar is now open to the public, not just ticket holders, and is run by Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson, the duo responsible for Frenchette, Le Rock and Le Veau d’Or. A theatrically lit dining room with a large semicircular bar and green leather banquettes at tables seats about 50 for a simple menu: seafood raw and cooked, steak tartare, Caesar salad, burger, lobster club sandwich, pasta Alfredo, monkfish kebab, a steak dinner for two ($120) and a slab of coconut cake, with a concise drink and wine list alongside. The two chefs are also making buttered popcorn for a concession stand, appropriate since some of the programming by A24, which now owns the theater, will be film.
Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street (Bedford Street), wildcherrynyc.com.
Txula Steak
The newest restaurant to find its way into Mercado Little Spain, run by the chef José Andrés and the executive chef Nicolas Lopez in Hudson Yards, shows steak from a Basque point of view. It’s named for the Txuletón, a rib-eye aged 60-days and cooked over fire in a Josper charcoal oven. Other meats, seafood and vegetables share this treatment, including lechal (baby Spanish lamb), new for the United States. The Txuleburger, made with dry-aged rib-eye, is another option. Start with pintxos and to finish, inevitably there is Basque cheesecake, dispensed here from a cart. Decorated with a Basque theme with white tablecloths in the former Leña space, the restaurant has a robust drinks lineup with particular attention paid to martinis.
Mercado Little Spain, 515 West 30th Street (10th Avenue), phone, littlespain.com/location/txula.
Good Days
Having met up while working at Marc Murphy’s Landmarc, the chef Stephany Burgos and the sommelier Amanda Norton have opened their own expression of New American cooking and drinking. Small plates of Fontina croquettes and lion’s mane skewers segue into dishes like linguine with bottarga and bread crumbs, pan-seared duck with parsnip purée, and swordfish Milanesa, all suited for sharing. Cocktails, amaros and wines express variety and sustainability. There’s a bar up front, a dining room and a patio that echoes with the rumble of the Williamsburg Bridge overhead.
91 South Sixth Street (Berry Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, gooddaysbk.com.
Danny’s
Best known as a pundit on ABC who also has had a hand in restaurants like White Street, which have closed, Dan Abrams has now opened an intimate American bistro. The bar area is dominated by a mural suggesting the neighborhood’s history of the Ladies’ Mile. The chef Ed Tinoco, who worked at Metropolis and Alinea, adds some inventive touches to a menu that’s more routine (tuna tartare, hamachi crudo, Caesar salad, lumache Bolognese, grilled branzino) than revolutionary. But let’s hear it for the Peking duck and the Taleggio agnolotti. The wine list is all-American and tempts with tastes of Virginia, Michigan, New York and Texas in addition to the usual West Coast destinations. (Opens Friday)
46 West 22nd Street, dannysnyc.com.
Cuna
The latest dining venue in the Standard East Village features Mexican food by the Mexico City chef Maycoll Calderón, who also had a restaurant in Merida. Tuna tostada, pork Milanesa (Milanesas are grabbing New York; see Good Days, above, among others) and a sweet corn cake. The chef takes advantage of Greenmarket goods, notably fresh herbs for seasonings and sauces. (Thursday)
The Standard East Village, 25 Cooper Square (East Fifth Street), 646-845-8739, cuna.nyc.
Closed
Baar Baar
At a time when Indian restaurants are having an impact in New York, this nearly eight-year old example in the East Village, described as a gastrobar, has closed. The expired lease was not renewed. Sujan Sarkar, the chef, has a Baar Baar in Los Angeles, which will remain open along with other places in other cities. In New York he’ll be opening Butter Chicken Social soon in the new Shaver Hall food complex.
Looking Ahead
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art continues to be a work in progress, and not just on the gallery side. The museum is updating its food and beverage offerings and have selected the chefs Rita Sodi and Jody Williams, West Village stars with such dining magnets as Via Carota, Buvette and Commerce Inn, to create the changes, in partnership with the museum. Max Hollein, the director and chief executive, said: “we are excited to see their creative excellence meld with the inspiration of the Museum.” They will eventually revise what’s offered in existing cafes and restaurants, including at the Cloisters uptown. The Met Dining Room is permanently closed.
1000 Fifth Avenue (82nd Street), metmuseum.org.
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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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