Headliner
Small Batch
The neighborhood, with Bobby Flay’s commendable fast-food Burger Palace and the steakhouse chain Capital Grille just steps away, is not bad, as suburban malls go. But the arrival of the chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio at the Roosevelt Field shopping center in Nassau County definitely ups the ante. His new restaurant, a case study in attention to detail from design to dessert, would not be out of place in an urban setting. Bentel & Bentel, the architects based in nearby Locust Valley that designed Mr. Colicchio’s Craft along with Gramercy Tavern and Le Bernardin, have given this new restaurant, on a premium corner in the center, a sophisticated farmhouse look. There’s a big barroom with lights hung from vintage orchard ladders, and a bigger dining room with country-style spindle-back chairs facing the open kitchen. Asked why he’s opening a restaurant there, Mr. Colicchio said that people everywhere want good food. “I’m testing this market,” he said. “I think the future is in opening a restaurant that’s not typical in an area like this.” The menu, created by Mr. Colicchio, is in the hands of Thomas Chang, the chef de cuisine. It is rustic American, strongly farm-to-table (farms are about an hour away), with dishes like Honeycrisp apples with delicata squash and country ham; mussels in white wine cream with fennel and turmeric; grilled squid with chickpeas, celery and Aleppo pepper; grilled swordfish with white beans and oven-roasted tomatoes; and smoked short ribs with polenta. Claudia Fleming, an owner of North Fork Table who was the pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern, is overseeing the desserts. Mr. Colicchio expects to have local wines, beers and spirits on the drinks list.
Roosevelt Field, 630 Old Country Road, Garden City, N.Y., 516-548-8162, smallbatchrestaurant.com.
Opening
Odo
Hiroki Odo, who was the executive chef at Kajitsu, in Murray Hill, is opening his own kaiseki restaurant hidden, speakeasy-style, behind Hall, the all-day cafe and bar he opened in November. There are only 14 seats at the counter, where the chef serves a nine-course kaiseki that amounts to a tour of various Japanese techniques.
17 West 20th Street (Fifth Avenue), no phone, odo.nyc. check: 212-255-6717.)
Maison Vivienne New York
In an effort to keep its summer clientele happy, the owners of this Mediterranean restaurant in Southampton, N.Y., has opened a Manhattan branch. The menu, by the executive chef, Victor Pastuizaca, and his son, Johnny Pastuizaca, the sous-chef, features octopus pressed and served with arugula, fennel and blood orange; warm goat cheese wrapped in phyllo; duck breast with a honey lavender glaze; bouillabaisse; and a list of pastas and risottos. There is also a father-and-son team devising cocktails: the renowned Albert Trummer and his son Jakob Trummer.
116 East 60th Street, 646-484-5356, maisonvivi.com.
Unagi
On the heels of the November opening of Hachibei, a restaurant specializing in freshwater eels imported from Japan, New York will now have a second freshwater eel restaurant, this one importing its eels, live, from Japan. The small restaurant is being fitted with a 1,000-gallon tank where the eels will be kept. But no, you do not have to catch your own as at the new Zauo restaurant in Chelsea, where patrons can go fishing; Unagi’s chefs do the work, then steam them with a coating of sugar and soy sauce, and grill them over charcoal ($29 for a half eel, $49 for whole). Grilled eel livers will be another specialty. This restaurant is the work of Bros Seafood, owned by Samuel Pierce, who has a passion for Japanese food, and his brother, Barrett Pierce. (Saturday)
60 Kenmare Street (Mott Street), 212-257-2335, unaginyc.com.
Sola Lab
A sibling to Sola Pasta Bar in SoHo, this has fewer seats and no open kitchen. Nearly a dozen pastas dominate the menu. A meat, a chicken and a fish dish are also served. Luigi Speranza is the chef. (Wednesday).
45 Beekman Street (William Street), 212-233-2000, solahospitality.com.
Her Name Was Carmen
A restaurant on two floors brings Latin-American heat at a time of year when it’s most welcome. The owners, Thatcher Shultz and Andres Diaz, have installed the dining room on the upper level. The chef, Omar Ben Hammou, specializes in seafood; he worked in Brazil, Australia and Switzerland, and in New York at Flora Bar. The lower level is larger, with a bar and lounge and a dance floor.
527 Broome Street (Sullivan Street), 917-262-0107.
EMP Winter House
The success of their Eleven Madison Park summer pop-up, EMP Summer House in East Hampton, N.Y., has led Will Guidara and Daniel Humm to create a winter-themed version in Colorado ski country that’s a perfect fit for Mr. Humm’s Swiss roots. Dishes like smoked trout toast, veal schnitzel and fondue will be served, and there will be an after-ski menu. Reservations can be made only with an American Express card. (Saturday)
Chefs Club at the St. Regis, 315 East Dean St, Aspen, Colo., no phone, empwinterhouse.com.
Starbucks Reserve Roastery New York and Princi
The global coffee company is installing a 23,000 square-foot coffee-roasting plant modeled after the one it opened four years ago in Seattle. In addition to roasting many of the coffees to be sold in the Northeast, it will also have a coffee bar, and displays showing the coffee process from farm to cup. There is also a Princi Italian bakery on the premises. (Friday)
61 Ninth Avenue (15th Street), phone, starbucksreserve.com.
Chefs on the Move
Brian Leth
The former chef at Vinegar Hill House and then at Faun, both in Brooklyn, heads upstate to become the executive chef at Zak Pelaccio’s Fish & Game in Hudson, N.Y.
Max Blachman-Gentile
As the new chef de cuisine at the Standard, East Village, he is baking rustic breads with uncommon grains, as he did at Torst, in Brooklyn. They are being served there, and sold to take away.
Hemant Mathur
The Indian chef, who is a partner in several Manhattan restaurants and at one time had a Michelin star, will be the executive chef at Maska, a spacious restaurant with a focus on tandoor cooking opening in Miami next week, in Midtown, the area between the design district and Wynwood.
Looking Ahead
Union Square Hospitality Group
Danny Meyer’s company will open a major restaurant in the Brookfield Properties development called Manhattan West, to open in 2020 across 10th Avenue from Hudson Yards. It is to be the anchor restaurant for the cluster of office and residential buildings, a hotel and a Whole Foods Market going up from Ninth to 10th Avenues and from 31st to 33rd Streets. No details about the restaurant have been confirmed.
The Chatwal Lodge
Fifty years after Woodstock, the Catskills town of Bethel, N.Y., where the music festival was held, has been chosen for a new 26-acres resort with food by the Paris chef Alain Ducasse. Sant Singh Chatwal, the chairman of the Dream Hotel Group, which has several Manhattan hotels, will open it in 2020. With Mr. Ducasse on board to create the menus, Mr. Chatwal is hoping the property will become a culinary destination.
Closing
Pasta Flyer
The former Del Posto chef Mark Ladner’s Italian fast-food spot will close at the end of Dec. 28, after a little more than a year in business. Mr. Ladner said he is looking for another space.
510 Avenue of the Americas (13th Street), no phone, pastaflyer.com.
The Stanton Social
This popular spot offering drinking and dining on three floors was something of a Lower East Side trailblazer when it opened 15 years ago; it will close on Jan. 1. Chris Santos, the chef and an owner, said the lease is up, and he is looking to relocate.
99 Stanton Street (Ludlow Street), 212-995-0099, thestantonsocial.com.
Boqueria Fort Greene
The restaurant anchor in the Gotham Market at the Ashland in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, will close Dec. 20.
Quatorze Bis
The Upper East Side is losing this French bistro, which has been there for 28 years after moving from West 14th Street, its original home for six years as simply Quatorze. The landlord is planning to demolish the building, and the restaurant will close permanently on Dec. 30.
323 East 79th Street (Second Avenue), 212-535-1414, quatorze.nyc.
Battersby
This intimate destination for new-American tasting menus will serve its last meal on Dec. 31. Joe Ogrodnek, an owner and a chef, has announced plans to open a restaurant, Floret, in Sister City, a Lower East Side hotel.
255 Smith Street (Degraw Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, 718-852-8321, battersbybrooklyn.com.
