Opening
Lola’s
The chef Suzanne Cupps is honoring her lola (grandmother in Filipino) Annunciasion Rocamora Paraiso with this new restaurant that pays tribute to her courage during World War II. The menu reflects Ms. Cupp’s experiences growing up in Aiken, S.C., and working in New York with the chefs Anita Lo and Michael Anthony. Expect seasonal dishes like Southern stuffed clams, fried tilefish lettuce wraps with kohlrabi slaw, country rib skewers, and stir-fried egg noodles with early spring greens and silk chile crisp. The beverage director, Adrienne Vanni, has sought value on the wine list, with many options under $100 and several nonalcoholic choices. There is a bar up front and tables at green banquettes that follow back to the emerald tile open kitchen with a terrazzo counter where the chef will be at work. (Opens Thursday)
Alaluna
The downtown group of Italian shopping and eating areas called Travelers Poets and Friends is now complete with the addition of this intimate spot for seafood by the executive chef and partner Riccardo Orfino. The emphasis is on dry-aged fish. Exposing fish to air, a Japanese technique that’s gaining ground, reduces moisture to the benefit of fat and succulence. Mr. Orfino takes it to Italy with a cured fish plate, aged bonito tartare and smoked yellowtail agnolotti. The restaurant is next to the all-day bistro in the space.
Mala Hot Pot
This is not the first Chinese restaurant named málà, meaning numbing and spicy, as known best in Sichuan food. The partner Kevin Chen, formerly of Tang Hotpot, and the chef Yi Bin Yang, from Sichuan, offer a raft of ingredients including prime and Wagyu beef, assorted vegetables and innards like tripe, duck blood and pork artery to simmer in broth. The setting is industrial.
The Mouth
Brooklyn Art Haus in Williamsburg now has its own restaurant next door. The kitchen is run by the chefs Naama Tamir and her brother, Assaf Tamir, who own Lighthouse Restaurant nearby. The menu, which emphasizes sustainability, is mainly Middle Eastern and will expand to cover more of the Mediterranean. (Saturday)
Dinner at Shlomo’s
This supper club, tucked inside Comodo restaurant and named for the “Law Office of Shlomo and Shlomo” found on a door in the restaurant’s cellar, will offer chef’s dinners, $150. From Thursday through Saturday the chef will be Elly Fraser, who had a restaurant, Elly’s, in Mexico City and is now cooking in New York. From April 18 to 20, the chef will be Carolina Santos-Neves of Comodo. (Thursday)
Universal Taco
Franklin Becker has changed the name and concept of what was Oliva Tapas in the food hall on Columbia University’s uptown campus. It now takes a global approach to tacos with fillings like Jamaican braised oxtail and lamb gyro along with traditional choices like al pastor. (April 9)
Grain de Sail
For nearly 15 years, a sailing fleet based in Morlaix, France, in Brittany, has been ferrying chocolate and coffee from Latin America back to France as a sustainable alternative to engine-powered shipping. It makes stopovers in New York to deliver French products. This weekend the modern cargo schooner Grain de Sail will be open to visitors at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. for tours and tastings of French wines and chocolates in an event presented by the South Street Seaport Museum. Tickets include admission to a companion program on the tall ship Wavertree docked nearby. (Saturday and Sunday)
Chef on the Move
Caroline Schiff
This executive pastry chef at Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn since it reopened nearly four years ago is leaving. Kathryn Irizarry is now the head pastry chef. Ms. Schiff’s own diner in partnership with Tori Ciambriello, the restaurant’s manager, is on the horizon.
Looking Ahead
The Refinery at Domino
The chef James Kent of Crown Shy and Saga at 70 Pine Street in the financial district and his Saga Hospitality Group will cross the East River later this year. Destiny? The address is 300 Kent Avenue. They have leased 3,000 square feet of space from Two Trees Management on the ground floor of the former Domino Sugar refinery for a bakery and a casual all-day restaurant. The bakery is to be run by Renata Ameni, the executive pastry chef of the Saga Hospitality Group. It will also provide access to the public for ice cream and other items through a window facing Domino Park. It was not lost on Ms. Ameni that she will be turning out confections in a former sugar factory.
Shopping
Bon Bon
In addition to stores in Manhattan and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Swedish candy juggernaut has now opened its Brooklyn warehouse on weekends, for a fourth retail option. Hundreds of imported candy choices fill shelves and bins, and there’s a candy library. On Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., lines form for Swedish-style hot dogs, snappy sausages fully loaded with sweet pickles, relish, mustard, crisp fried onions and a choice of creamy rémoulade or Swedish shrimp salad piled in a bun, $6.
Levain Bakery
The 10th outlet of this chain of bakeries known for their heavy-duty cookies will be selling a version of the iconic New York black-and-white. Theirs, a nearly black dark chocolate mound of cookie riddled throughout with white and dark chocolate chunks, is almost a photographic negative of a chocolate chip cookie. It’s $5.75 and only at this new location. (Friday)
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