Opening
Confidant
This much-anticipated fine-dining addition, a first for Industry City, is about to open in a setting that combines polished cement, wooden accents, napery and an open kitchen. The chefs Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman, who worked at Roberta’s, have brought on a few hospitality veterans as partners. A seasonal menu emphasizes dry-aged fish and meats, some from Industry City merchants. Trout mousse, tuna prosciutto and tuna belly crudo can also precede prawn potpie, steamed monkfish with brown butter crumbles, and a whole crown of duck with duck confit salad. The pastry chef Mariah Neston offers a rhubarb upside-down cake and, move over charlotte russe, an updated biscuit tortoni. (Opens Wednesday)
Howoo
This 257-seat Korean barbecue palace on two floors is most of the iceberg. The space will soon accommodate the rest: DubuHaus for tofu and Musaek, serving cocktails with a raw bar. The specialties are steaks, domestic and imported, including Wagyu, to order à la carte ($55 to $95) or in set arrangements. All come with banchan and lettuce ssam. There are also seafood naeng-chae, spicy cold noodles, kettlepot rice, kimchi stew and, for dessert, green tea soft serve.
Printemps
They nailed the season for the opening of the New York branch of the Parisian megastore, Printemps. All but the flagship restaurant, Maison Passerelle, opening in April, will be ready to serve and pour by the end of the week. Alongside boutiques, shoppers will find a Champagne bar; Café Jalu, open all day for coffee and pastries; Salon Vert, with raw bar items; and the Red Room Bar, for cocktails, adjacent to Maison Passerelle. The food is the province of Gregory Gourdet, the culinary director, whose approach to French fare includes tastes of Haiti, West Africa, Vietnam and French Canada. Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs are by Laura Gonzalez. (Friday)
Kansha
An uncommon Nikkei vibe comes to Carnegie Hill from Jorge Dionicio, a native of Peru who worked at Uchi in Austin, Texas, and whose New York experience has been in Japanese restaurants like Morimoto and Sushi Noz. He makes liberal use of ají amarillo in gyoza, maki and tiradito, and is serving Peruvian lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry; and parihuela, a kind of Peruvian bouillabaisse. The dining room deploys Peruvian textiles for vibrant accents, and there’s an omakase counter on the upper level.
Gitano
A tropical jungle fantasy that has parked its leopard prints, lush greenery and disco balls in pop-up locations in New York and elsewhere, now has a permanent home on Pier 17 in the seaport district. It trumpets its taste of Tulum, the late-Mayan archaeological site on the coast of the Yucatán that now has the vibe of St. Barts. Tulum is where the parent group, Grupo Gitano, run by James Gardner, got its start. An installation in Dubai preceded New York. The menu here is long on Mexican crowd-pleasers. It has taken over parts of two levels of the pier; a private club will open upstairs.
Essex Pearl
Aqua Best, a seafood dealer, is selling prepared food at this spot in Pier 57. The stall is serving Southeast Asian specialties like a shrimp patty burger, red curry seafood bisque and a lobster roll topped with fried shallots. The chef is Daniel Le. (Friday)
Win Son Bakery
A Manhattan branch of the popular Taiwanese bakery-restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been open for delivery but by Wednesday it will fling the doors open and also be ready for in-house customers and takeout. Six varieties of scallion pancake sandwiches, a specialty, share the menu with fan tuan sticky rice rolls, a couple of burgers, and sweets, including millet mochi doughnuts, cookies and a date cake that’s a riff on sticky toffee pudding. (Wednesday)
Miss Penelope’s Chinese Kitchen
The palm-shaded velvet-draped den adjacent to and from the same owners as Avra has added a menu of Chinese tidbits. Choices include dumplings, spring rolls, ribs and kung pao cauliflower and a few more substantial dishes along with other bites like sliders.
Looking Ahead
Teruko
The mix of dining options in the historic Hotel Chelsea will soon have has this Japanese spot. To run it, the hotel owners have brought in Tadashi Ono, who first attracted attention for his French fare as the executive chef at La Caravelle. He has also worked, notably, at Matsuri in the Maritime Hotel, and most recently at Taru. At Teruko, named for Teruko Yokoi, an artist who lived at the hotel and was married to the artist Sam Francis, Mr. Ono will helm the à la carte restaurant with sushi and cooked food in the basement space that had been Serena’s. As he has done previously, places will be set with some of the pottery he’s made.
JR & Son
The space that housed a popular, longstanding bar, founded in 1934, which took the name JR & Son in 1976, is now in the hands of Louis Skibar of Kellogg’s Diner, the designer Nico Arze and Michelle Lobo. They plan to open it in late spring. It will have 50 seats. The owners have put Patricia Vega, previously at Thai Diner, in charge of the kitchen to turn out Italian American fare.
Closing
Gem Wine Bar
First it was Gem with tasting menus, then it became the new location of Gem Wine, a wine bar with restaurant aspirations. The chef Flynn McGarry is closing that iteration on March 28 and plans to devote his time to opening Cove, a new restaurant at 299 West Houston Street in Hudson Square. During Gem Wine’s final week, guest food and wine personalities will contribute to the menus. Mr. McGarry’s market-cafe nearby, Gem Home, remains open.
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