Headliner
Chikarashi Isso
Chikarashi, the counter-service restaurants on the edge of Chinatown and in NoMad, give poke bowls a Japanese touch. Now the owners are diving deeper into that country’s culinary aesthetic with a full-service restaurant interpreting kappo-style cuisine; think omakase with inventive cooked food. Here, Ivy Tsang, Jonathan Chu, and their chef and partner, Michael Jong Lim, serve à la carte and tasting menus that amount to a tour of the Japanese table. Tempura, yakitori, karaage, udon and chawanmushi are all there, along with some luxury specialties like wok lobster and uni risotto. The sommelier, Fred Dexheimer, has assembled the sake portfolio. The minimalist 38-seat dining room has a two-fold mission. Kappo dinners are its nighttime feature, and a wooden partition will close off the casual Chikarashi portion of the space with its soapstone counter, leaving just the intimate restaurant. The daytime counter service won’t start for a few weeks.
38 Rector Street (Washington Street), 646-596-8298, chikarashiisso.com.
Opening
Pips
Two of the owners of Colonie restaurant — Elise Rosenberg and Emelie Kihlstrom — have finally opened their wine bar next door, along with the chef Jared Braithwaite. It will feature natural wines and the food of coastal Italy. The room is simply done and dominated by the bar. (Opens Friday)
129 Atlantic Avenue (Henry Street), Brooklyn Heights, no phone, pipsbrooklyn.com.
Koyo
The owner, Jay Zheng, has shoehorned two tiny restaurants into this compact Queens space. An eight-seat omakase ($135) sushi bar and a 10-seat kaiseki ($175) dining room are in the hands of the executive chef, Darry Liu, whose impressive résumé includes stints at Neta, Shuko, Eleven Madison Park and Uchu Sushi Bar. Imported ingredients, rare sakes and jewel-like presentations rule.
37-12 31st Avenue (37th Street), Astoria, Queens, 929-328-2890, koyonewyork.com.
Kitchen at Shale Hill Farm
Patti Jackson, former chef of the Michelin-starred Delaware and Hudson in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has moved to the Hudson Valley, an area that’s increasingly a magnet for chefs. She has started this full-service catering company, serving the area as well as New York City, in partnership with Dallas Gilpin, who owns Shale Hill Farm and the Dutch Ale House, and Jenny Oz LeRoy, who owns nearby Oz Farm and is a daughter of the flamboyant restaurateur Warner LeRoy. Ms. Jackson’s menu is largely seasonal American, though if you want a dim sum station, sushi, Mexican fare or tapas, she’ll be up for those, too.
136 Hommelville Road, Saugerties, N.Y., 845-247-0934, kitchenatshalehillfarm.com.
Le Crocodile
The unassuming elegance of the dining room in one of Williamsburg’s first hotels, brick walls and all, has been largely retained in the hands of the restaurateur Jon Neidich, best known for the Acme in Manhattan, and his partners, Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal, the chefs and owners of Chez Ma Tante in Greenpoint. Here, the chefs are moving from the bistro fare with English and global touches they’re known for, to a lengthy brasserie-style menu, more strictly French. Rabbit and duck rillettes, onion soup with lardons tucked inside, classic escargots, steak frites, boudin blanc, halibut with beurre blanc, and profiteroles speak the language of a room done with red leather banquettes and mirrors. (Opens Wednesday)
Wythe Hotel, 80 Wythe Avenue (North 11th Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-460-8004, lecrocodile.com.
Mister French
The smorgasbord that is the career of the chef and restaurateur David Burke now includes this French restaurant and lounge, which will feature burlesque and other performances a few nights a week. He’s working with four owners of Redefine Hospitality, in the space that housed the short-lived restaurant Rebelle. The executive chef is Guillaume Thivet, and with Mr. Burke he is serving oysters Rockefeller, skate meunière, roast chicken, filet of beef and fries.
218 Bowery (Prince Street), 646-649-4805, misterfrenchnyc.com.
The Well Kitchen & Table
You can easily take your food allergies, sensitivities and the like to this new restaurant in a club, the Well, which is devoted to wellness with features like a meditation dome and a reflexology lounge. The restaurant is open to the public, not just club members. The restaurant’s executive chef, Sherry Cardoso, worked at Cafe Cluny, Per Se and Brooklyn Fare. Her menu, devised in consultation with a team of partners in this enterprise, features just what you’d expect: organic, seasonal, local ingredients in dishes like a sprouted quinoa and bean burger, and a bowl of chickpeas, vegetables and greens at lunch; and at dinner, sashimi, house-made burrata, wild halibut with savoy cabbage, and also the quinoa and bean burger. There is also a daily market table from which diners can select ingredients like roasted vegetables.
2 East 15th Street, 646-560-8088, the-well.com.
Du’s Donuts and Coffee
Wylie Dufresne has opened a holiday pop-up of his Williamsburg, Brooklyn, doughnut shop. The pop-up, near Union Square, will be open daily through Dec. 29 (except Dec. 24 and 25). Orders can be placed online for pickup from noon to 5 p.m.
31 East 17th Street (Broadway), dusdonuts.com.
Harlem Night Market
Food will be a major focus at what is being billed at Manhattan’s first night market, to begin this weekend. It will occupy the renovated areas of the historic East Harlem market, La Marqueta, with a savory food court occupied by vendors like Harlem Shake, Eggroll Queen, and Sisters Cuisine; a sweet food court with Harlem Pie Man and others; and a garden area serving beer and coquito. Handmade wares like beads will also be featured; there will be music and, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., a selfie-ready Santa. The market is a collaboration among NYC Public Markets, Uptown Grand Central, TBO Harlem and Buy Local East Harlem. (Dec. 7, 14 and 21, 4 to 10 p.m.)
La Placita at La Marqueta, 1590 Park Avenue (116th Street).
Looking Ahead
Citizens at Manhattan West
Manhattan West, a shiny new skyscraper development by Brookfield Properties directly across 10th Avenue from Hudson Yards, will have several major food components when it opens next October. Citizens at Brookfield, occupying 40,000 square feet, will have restaurants from C3, a subsidiary of SBE, a global hospitality company founded by Sam Nazarian that owns such brands as Umami Burger, Katsuya, a caviar bar called 12 Chairs, and Cleo. The space, to be designed by David Rockwell, will include six to 10 fast-casual spots like Umami Burger, Krispy Rice, and two full-service restaurants, all owned by SBE. In addition, on the corner of 31st Street and 10th Avenue, Manhattan West will have a 65,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market with a bigger-than-usual component of prepared foods; a restaurant with a well-known chef (to be announced) in the new Pendry hotel; and a major restaurant and cafe on three floors by Danny Meyer. A significant performance space is also being planned.
31st to 33rd Streets, Ninth to 10th Avenues.
Rockefeller Center
The first of several big changes in the center’s dining tenants will be a restaurant on Rockefeller Plaza from Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr to replace Brasserie Ruhlmann, which will close in March. Mr. Hanson and Mr. Nasr, who own Frenchette in TriBeCa, are also busy reinventing Le Veau d’Or on the Upper East Side. “It’s too early to know what it will be, brasserie or something else,” Mr. Nasr said of the Rockefeller Center restaurant, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2021. “We’re terrified and excited, and it’s interesting that Tishman Speyer is willing to take a chance on us.” EB Kelly, a managing director of Tishman Speyer, which owns and manages Rockefeller Center, said the company is reimagining its food and beverage options. “We are working on anywhere from 10 to 20 new offerings in the next two years,” Ms. Kelly said, not just in existing restaurant spaces but also in what have been offices. As part of that effort, the company is installing a bar, Pebble Bar, on two townhouse floors above Magnolia Bakery on the corner of 49th Street and Avenue of the Americas. It’s a collaboration among Noah Bernamoff of Black Seed Bagels, Julian Brizzi of Celestine, and Matt Kliegman and Carlos Quirarte of the Smile. This fall, Tishman Speyer announced that the Sea Grill and Rock Center Café, 20-year veterans of the complex, would close early next year. Replacements for those spaces have not been chosen.
48th to 51st Streets, Fifth Avenue to Avenue of the Americas.
Chefs on the Move
Hussain Shahzad
Mr. Shahzad, the executive chef of O Pedro, a Mumbai restaurant that specializes in the food of Goa, the former Portuguese colony in western India, will be the next chef at Intersect by Lexus, the car company’s lifestyle and dining installation on West 14th Street. He starts in February.
Jimin Kim and Sandy Han
The couple, who founded Saikai Ramen Bar in Los Angeles, have temporarily closed it and are now in New York for a three-week recipe-development session at Ramen Lab in NoLIta.
