Headliner
Maialino (vicino)
Danny Meyer had success in relocating his Union Square Cafe. Now he’s moving another spot: his ode to Rome, Maialino. Formerly in the Gramercy Park Hotel, the restaurant closed at the beginning of the pandemic. He is now reopening it nearby (vicino means just that) in what were his Caffe Marchio and Vini e Fritti spaces in the Redbury Hotel. (His pizzeria there, Marta, is still going strong.) With two rooms, Maialino is a wine bar and a trattoria, both intimate spots and smaller than the original. Joe Downey-Zayas, who was at Maialino, is now the executive chef. His menu includes a radicchio salad with walnuts, pears and pecorino; classic bucatini all’Amatriciana and tonnarelli cacio e pepe; suckling pig with rosemary potatoes; and slow-roasted lamb with fennel and rosemary. The bar in the trattoria showcases the amaros, vermouths, gins and grappas popular in Italy. There is a wine bar, in a space next door to the trattoria, serving a range of Italy’s wines with salumi, cheeses, preserved vegetables, crostini and panini.
The Redbury New York, 30 East 30th Street, 212-777-2410, maialinonyc.com.
Opening
Peaches Prime
Smoke Joint in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, first brought notice to Craig Samuel and Ben Grossman, in 2006. It closed, but they went on to pepper neighborhoods with variations on their Peaches spots, always delivering a taste of the South, and even adding a Smoke Joint in Livingston Manor, in the Catskills. Now, with Damian Laverty McDowell, the executive chef and a partner, they’re back in Fort Greene, or, as they put it, in the Downtown Theater District of Fort Greene, with this brick-walled 90-seat touch of elegance and a “New York brasserie” menu: raw bar, Caesar salad, rib-eye, roast chicken, oxtail fettuccine, fried whiting and a cauliflower “roast.” There is brunch before or instead of that matinee.
590 Fulton Street (Rockwell Place), Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718-673-6014, bcrestaurantgroup.com.
Freds x Louis
Freds, the restaurant formerly in the Barney’s flagship store, has popped up in its old digs. The Barney’s building is the final stop for 200 Trunks 200 Visionaries, a traveling Louis Vuitton exhibit that celebrates the company’s 200th anniversary. The visionaries’ trunks on display are designed by Frank Gehry, Peter Marino and Gloria Steinem, among others, and at the end of the year will be auctioned for charity. To revive Freds the company has brought back the original chef, Mark Strausman, now the owner of Mark’s Off Madison, and some of his staff members; the restaurant will be open for lunch and cocktails through Dec. 31.
660 Madison Avenue (60th Street), louis-200-nyc-reservations.com.
Tortazo
When it opened a little over a year ago, Rick Bayless’s restaurant in NoMad offered fast-casual counter service. Now, it’s a full-service bistro. The interior was refurbished with colorful fabrics and murals, and Mr. Bayless has revised the menu, adding salsa negra mushroom tacos and smoked salmon ceviche tostadas to a lineup that still features tortas a la plancha.
1123 Broadway (25th Street), 212-920-3722, tortazo.com.
