Headliner
Molyvos
After nearly 25 years on Seventh Avenue and 55th Street, this Greek restaurant has found a new, less sprawling home at the southern edge of the theater district, in the former Esca space. “We wanted something smaller,” said Nick Livanos, who owns the restaurant with family members, “and this gave us the opportunity.” Capacity is down to 65 seats from 220, in a spacious and airy room graced with stonework and a terrace for when the weather warms again. There’s still a wall of family photos — the Livanos family is from the village of Molyvos on the island of Lesbos — and another of painted plates from the island of Rhodes. The restaurant will continue to offer home-style fare, like stuffed peppers and meatballs along with a fairly typical Greek lineup, but what will not be available for the reopening are the grilled fish and lamb specialties. Gas has yet to be connected. “We are able to provide about 75 percent of our menu as it is,” Mr. Livanos said. Added to the menu and not derailed by the lack of fuel is a new section of raw, chilled and marinated dishes like Ionian hamachi crudo with anise carrot purée, ouzo-cured salmon, marinated sardines en croute and smoked Ioanian eel with a ouzo-blood orange glaze. The various spreads, salads, spanakopita, dolmades and moussaka remain on the menu.
402 West 43rd Street, 212-582-7500, molyvos.com.
Opening
Tatiana
With a street entrance facing David H. Koch Theater and a wall of windows shaded by shimmering mesh curtains, the new restaurant in David Geffen Hall is ready to welcome guests, both concert-going and not. It’s run by the marquee chef Kwame Onwuachi and named for his sister. Mr. Onwuachi’s approach is New York, richly influenced by his background in the Bronx, his travels and, closer to home, San Juan Hill, the neighborhood that gave way to Lincoln Center. Consider truffled chopped cheese buns with dry-aged rib-eye, egusi seafood soup dumplings in a Nigerian red stew, oxtails with rice and peas, black bean hummus alongside berbere-spiced lamb, salmon Creole and, for dessert, a rainbow cookie panna cotta. Marble and walnut-topped tables, a granite bar and an intimate private dining room complete the picture. The chef de cuisine, seen from the open kitchen, is Kamat Newman. Don Lee and Amy Racine handle the drinks. For now, the restaurant is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 5 to 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-875-5222, tatiananyc.com.
Naro
The first of several new restaurants opening around the skating rink in Rockefeller Center is this expression of Korean tradition buffed with contemporary touches from Junghyun and Ellia Park of Atoboy and Atomix. King crab bibimbap is a good example. More formal than Atoboy but less so than Atomix, the restaurant offers tasting menus, vegetarian and not, at lunch (five courses, $95) and dinner (seven courses, $195). A prix-fixe menu ($85), as well as food à la carte, will be served at indoor terrace tables alongside the rink, which is set to open in a few weeks. They named it for Naro-1, South Korea’s first space rocket. There’s a bar and a somewhat austere, black-and-white dining room beyond.
Rink Level at Rockefeller Plaza, 610 Fifth Avenue (49th Street), naronyc.com.
Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue
This smokehouse restaurant is back in business a year and a half after a three-alarm fire. Though freshened, with 45 seats and an open kitchen, the country-style look remains. An extensive outdoor patio was added, and the menu now includes a 24-ounce cowboy steak slow-smoked over white oak. Beef back ribs and a Philadelphia smoked-brisket cheesesteak are other additions to the classic lineup of pulled pork, smoked chicken, brisket, cornbread and mac and cheese. Smoked bourbon and rye fuel some of the cocktails, and a smoked caramel sundae is a new, tempting finale. (Opens Wednesday)
267 Flatbush Avenue (St. Marks Avenue), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 718-622-2224, morgansbrooklynbarbecue.com.
