Headliner
Portale
Alfred Portale is redoing a lot of things for his new Chelsea restaurant, including his own food. The chef, whose name has been synonymous with new American cuisine for more than 30 years, has gone back to his Italian roots. “What I set out to do was something totally different,” he said. He’s willing to call this restaurant American-Italian, but hold the red sauce — even for the Bolognese. Here, it’s a Bolognese bianco, without tomato, and dresses one of the homemade pastas. Mr. Portale’s risotto is done carbonara-style, and he strews cilantro instead of the more-typical basil on another dish. Appetizers include a carpaccio of short rib with eye-catching marbling. Among the main dishes is a seafood stew for which cod is roasted before being added. Breads are baked in-house with freshly milled grains by the pastry chef, Kaity Mitchell. The space, which once housed Rouge Tomate, is whitewashed and dressed with marble and deep blue-green velvet. (Opens Friday)
126 West 18th Street, 917-781-0255, portalerestaurant.com.
Opening
Mina’s
The restaurant at MoMA PS1 has a new chef and is featuring a different cuisine. Mina Stone, who has roots in Greece and the country of Georgia, is bringing the foods of those areas and the Mediterranean to the museum restaurant. She’s well suited to cook in a museum, having been a chef for artists, notably Urs Fischer in Brooklyn. (Thursday)
MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue (46th Road), Long Island City, Queens, 718-440-4616, minas.nyc.
Milk Bar
Cereal milk has done well. Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar, where cereal milk is the signature soft-serve flavor, has gone from being a Momofuku satellite to a chain of 18 spots for desserts and other items. Her new flagship has taken over the former John Dory Oyster Bar space in the Ace Hotel in NoMad. In addition to soft-serve, cookies and cakes, there will be areas where multilayered cakes and eight-inch cookies are assembled to order while you wait, though you will need a reservation. Complex, layered “Build a Pint” ice cream confections are also made to order, no reservations needed. Savory stuffed “bombs” in flavors like eggplant Parm are also sold. There’s a gift shop and plenty of bench seating indoors and out. (Saturday)
1196 Broadway (29th Street), 347-577-9504, milkbarstore.com.
Café Kitsuné
Paris meets Tokyo meets the West Village in this boutique and cafe, the latest addition to the Kitsuné collection of stores and cafes across Paris and throughout Asia. The chef, Yuji Tani, offers mostly salads and sandwiches, smoked salmon from Russ & Daughters, and ice cream desserts from Nick Morgenstern. The setting combines exposed brick with pale wood, stone and rattan, and includes home goods and apparel for sale.
550 Hudson Street (Perry Street), 646-755-8158, cafekitsune.com.
Chefs on the Move
Ment’or
The biennial Bocuse d’Or international culinary competition in Lyon, France, won’t be held until January 2021, but the American team has already been chosen. Jeffery Hayashi, the chef de cuisine at Senia Restaurant in Honolulu, will represent the United States, assisted by William Barrera, a former cook at Roy’s Beach House in Kahuku, Hawaii. The runners-up were Scott Muns, the head of research and development of Rose’s Restaurant Group in Washington, with Yuta Umeki of Per Se in New York; and Nyesha Arrington, a chef and owner of Native in Santa Monica, Calif., which closed this year, with Michael Sansom of Ad Hoc in Yountville, Calif. The winners will immediately begin training for the prestigious contest. The chef Gavin Kaysen, the former vice president of Team USA and a founding member of Ment’or, was named the team’s president, succeeding Thomas Keller, the president of Ment’or.
Francis Mallmann
On Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., this Argentine chef, known for cooking with live fire, will be doing a cookout in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at the corner of Driggs Avenue and Lorimer Street. He will be serving garlic-pumpkin soup, meat-filled sandwiches and a vegan sandwich, free, to visitors. The event is to promote his line of clothing, accessories and home goods for Best Made, which has stores in New York and Los Angeles.
Closing
Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co.
Will and Julie Horowitz, the brother-and-sister team behind this East Village spot that’s been in business almost five years will close it on Nov. 25. Mr. Horowitz, who’s known for his pastrami, said that recent years had been a struggle. They plan to concentrate on their nearby restaurant, Duck’s Eatery, where, Mr. Horowitz said, he would hold occasional pastrami pop-ups early next year. They also plan to expand their production and distribution of smoked vegetables and fruit, like watermelon and carrots, and other products, selling them to other shops and restaurants.
189 Avenue A (12th Street), 646-864-0967, harryandidas.com.