Headliner
Oliva
This bright, spacious Spanish restaurant featuring tapas is a new addition to West Harlem. It opens in the three-month-old Manhattanville Market food court, part of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at Columbia University. Like the rest of the market, it’s run by the chef and restaurateur Franklin Becker, who has put Chris Strelnick in charge of Oliva as chef de cuisine. The choices among cured meats include top-of-the-line Ibérico hams. There are also cheeses, and about 30 hot and cold tapas. Most are classics like pan con tomate, potato tortilla, garlic shrimp, meatballs and salt cod croquettes. Somewhat more substantial are plates of chicken with sweet pepper sauce and almonds, squid or octopus with potatoes and peppers, and, serving two, a socarrat, which is crispy paella rice with seafood and aioli. Must-have desserts are churros, crema catalana, and chocolate cream with olive oil, salt and almonds. Most of the wines, ciders and beers and even many spirits on the deep list come from Spain and were assembled by the beverage consultant Eamon Rockey. He has also created the cocktails, often with a Spanish twist including sherry. Seating is on an elevated area on one side of the market, with outdoor tables, too.
Manhattanville Market, 3229 Broadway (130th Street), 917-522-0391, olivatapas.com.
Opening
Mighties
Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra of Contra and Wildair, along with John Ratliff of Ends Meat, have opened this spot for burgers in the Market Line food hall on the Lower East Side. The menu amounts to thinnish five-ounce grass-fed beef patties, single or double, with or without cheese, plus a hot dog and fries. The meat is from Duell Hollow Farm in Buskirk, N.Y.
Market Line, 115 Delancey Street (Essex Street), no phone, mightiesburgers.com.
Chikarashi Isso
When this restaurant opened in 2019, it offered casual fare, mostly bowls, for lunch. At dinner, a sliding panel revealed a simple but more elegant dining room for kaiseki-style kappo menus. It closed in March 2020 and has now reopened with a new chef and a less-formal approach. Now it’s all one tailored restaurant for lunch and dinner, but still with a counter option. Hideaki Kobayashi, the new chef who recently arrived from Tokyo, serves bowls at lunch, centered on raw fish, cooked seafood and tofu. The dinner menu lists small plates like chicken karaage, sashimi, chawanmushi, fried oysters, and potato croquette with black truffles. There is also tempura, donburi, shabu shabu, udon with tempura and sukiyaki.
38 Rector Street (Washington Street), 646-596-8298, chikarashiisso.com.
Compère Lapin at Intersect by Lexus — NYC
The chef Nina Compton’s New Orleans restaurant, a showcase for her personal take on Gulf Coast meets the Caribbean, will move into Intersect by Lexus starting Oct. 20. It follows The Grey and Manresa in the establishment’s second-floor restaurant residency program. Ms. Compton’s à la carte menu will feature dishes like pork belly with tamarind and green chutney, striped bass escovitch with jerk carrots, and doberge cake with lemon curd and lemon-buttermilk sorbet. There will be a tasting menu, too. Intersect by Lexus plans to make a donation to Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans. Reservations can be made starting Wednesday; Compère Lapin will be in residence Wednesdays through Sundays through January 2022.
Intersect by Lexus — NYC, 412 West 14th Street, 212-230-5832, intersect-nyc.com.
