Headliner
Hanoi Soup Shop
Just a couple of doors from their popular Vietnamese restaurant, Hanoi House, Sara Leveen and Ben Lowell are opening a compact all-day cafe serving classic noodle soups, sandwiches, salads and summer rolls. Ms. Leveen and Mr. Lowell took advantage of the new space, a former Mr Bing, to better accommodate customers who wanted food to take out or be delivered, which they could not do easily from Hanoi House. They also wanted to offer some typical North Vietnamese coffee shop items, like frothy egg coffee and cold coconut coffee. The noodle soups come with a choice of beef brisket, rib-eye, oxtail, tongue or shin; chicken and vegetarian options are also available. There’s a daily special like bun bo Hue, a spicy lemongrass soup from the former imperial capital. The expansion has required a bit of a chef shuffle, so Daniel Le, who was a co-executive chef at Hanoi House, is taking over the new soup spot. Albert Nguyen, a former co-executive chef at Hanoi House, is being promoted to executive chef at that restaurant.
115 St. Marks Place (Avenue A), 646-692-9130, hanoisoupshop.com.
Opening
Maison Yaki
A French yakitori restaurant? Greg Baxtrom, the chef and owner of Olmsted in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, is combining the two. Skewers of duck meatballs à l’orange with tare, a soy-based yakitori sauce, is just one of a dozen yakitori-style options that anchor the menu. He has playfully slipped some Japanese touches into other unmistakably French dishes, like appetizers of duck rillettes with a wasabi hollandaise and escargots seasoned with shiso butter. With Max Katzenberg, Olmsted’s managing partner, Mr. Baxtrom has given a classic French bistro look to a 50-seat space across the street from Olmsted. A year-round backyard patio even has a couple of pétanque courts. (Opens Wednesday)
626 Vanderbilt Avenue (Prospect Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 718-552-2609, maisonyaki.com.
Spin 54
The latest of this group of table-tennis parlors, which started almost 10 years ago in the Flatiron district and has locations nationwide, is putting more emphasis on the food. It has Antoine Westermann, who owns Le Coq Rico in Paris and was formerly at Le Coq Rico in New York, consulting on the menu for this Midtown Manhattan branch. He is working with the executive chef, Chad Bowser, to serve dishes like zucchini soup, sweet potato croquettes, a Wagyu brisket burger and linguine with smoked salmon in a creamy sauce. They’re calling it a “Ping-Pong bistro.”
7 East 54th Street (Fifth Avenue), 212-982-8802, wearespin.com.
Cedric’s at the Shed
The atmosphere at this spot by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group in the lobby of the Shed, the cultural center at Hudson Yards, is informal and flexible. A stretch of zinc bar with a charred wood front is the cynosure that faces groups of comfortable modern furniture, much of it by Knoll and easily moved to suit customers. The menu leans toward bar snacks like popcorn, deviled eggs, fava bean hummus and blue crab dip, with a few more substantial plates like a turkey sandwich, Caesar salad and grilled cheese. Wines by the glass are poured for less than $20, including tip, along with inventive cocktails and beers. (Wednesday)
The Shed, Hudson Yards, 545 West 30th Street, 646-860-4813, cedricsattheshed.com.
Casa Bocado
The chef Ivy Stark, who has made a name for herself in several Mexican kitchens, notably Dos Caminos and El Toro Blanco, will be the executive chef at this Mexican restaurant. The menu will include a toasted pepita dip, Mexican-style sushi like tuna with chiles and spicy wakame, pan-roasted red snapper with red chile adobo and salsa verde, skirt steak for two with goat cheese enchiladas, and a churro sundae. (Thursday)
341 Broome Street (Bowery), 646-355-1840, casabocadonyc.com.
Wayla
Erika Chou, a partner in Northern Tiger in Brookfield Place, has teamed up with the chef Tom Naumsuwan, to open this Thai restaurant with a focus on grilled and seafood items fueled with spices. There are 40 seats indoors, and backyard patio tables. (Friday)
100 Forsyth Street (Grand Street), 212-206-2500, waylanyc.com.
Bonsai Kakigori
A complex Japanese shaved ice dessert called kakigori has evolved over centuries. This fluffy frozen confection, layered with fruit syrup and condensed milk or pastry cream, is the feature at this intimate new dessert cafe. The owners, Gaston Becherano and Theo Friedman, are taking some liberties, like a Key lime pie version and a black-and-white cookie flavor. In addition to the desserts, there are toasts, topped with ricotta and jam, and a few sandwiches. Bonsai Kakigori also has a stand in the Canal Street Market and appears at Smorgasburg. (Saturday)
100 Stanton Street (Ludlow Street), 646-308-1244, bonsaikakigori.com.
Mothership Meat Company
Just on the cusp of barbecue season, this beer garden and Texas-style pit-smoking specialist is ready for customers. The owner and pitmaster is Josh Bowen, whose John Brown Smokehouse is nearby.
27-20 40th Avenue (28th Street), Long Island City, Queens.
Sunday in Brooklyn
This Williamsburg restaurant has taken over the food service at A/D/O by Mini, the work, event and exhibition space at 29 Norman Avenue (Banker Street), in Greenpoint and will run it until early summer. Later, a new restaurant will open in the space, to be run by Todd Enany, Adam Landsman and Jaime Young of Sunday in Brooklyn with JT Vuong and George Padilla, who were involved with Okonomi and Yuji Ramen.
Quatorze Bis
This neighborhood French bistro that closed at the end of last year will relocate nearby this summer, recreating as much of the old place and its menu as possible. The location had long housed Primavera, and then the Austrian restaurant Grünauer Bistro.
1578 First Avenue (82nd Street).
Junzi Kitchen
For its fourth and largest branch, this Northern Chinese restaurant, serving rolled bing pancakes and noodle bowls for eating in or taking out, has again picked a location near a university. (It started near Yale, then opened near Columbia, and then near New York University.) Here, it is steps from extensions of City University and New York University, though the Bryant Park area may promise a broader market. This site will also house the company’s test kitchen.
135 West 41st Street (Avenue of the Americas), junzi.kitchen.
Shinola Hotel
This new hotel in downtown Detroit now offers four different options for eating and drinking, all run by Andrew Carmellini and his NoHo Hospitality Group. There’s the top-of-the-line San Morello dining room for Southern Italian fare, as well as the amber-toned Evening Bar, both at 1400 Woodward Avenue. There’s also the newly opened Brakeman, a beer and recreation hall that accepts only tokens as currency, at 22 John R Street, and Penny Red’s, which serves fried chicken and biscuits, at 1445 Farmer Street. The hotel occupies a full square block, hence all the different street addresses.
1400 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, shinolahotel.com.
Chefs on the Move
Orion Russell
Mr. Russell, the chef de cuisine at Greenpoint Fish & Lobster when it opened in 2014, is back as executive chef after having served as chef de cuisine at Five Leaves in Greenpoint.
