Headliner
Peak
At the pinnacle of 30 Hudson Yards, the tallest tower in the complex, will be this sleek restaurant with stunning views from the 101st floor. The architect David Rockwell’s company, the Rockwell Group, has given the space a richly elegant but subdued look with shades of gray as the dominant palette. The Peak experience involves entering through a dim, plush lounge for cocktails and bar snacks on the fifth floor of Hudson Yards’s retail building. From there, an elevator speeds up and docks at a spacious lobby, with the restaurant to one side and private dining rooms and an event space opposite. The restaurant dips gradually from a curved, brass-trimmed 45-seat bar area to a 110-seat dining room, where sculptural light sticks hang from the ceiling and bare tables on a few levels afford views like a bird’s-eye of the Empire State Building. Does it remind you of Windows on the World? Of course, but with less grandeur and gilt. The restaurant is run by RHC, the English company that also manages Wild Ink in Hudson Yards. The executive chef, Christopher Cryer, who was in that role at the Seamore’s seafood restaurants, has created a fairly brief menu of sophisticated yet accessible American fare like Atlantic scallops with cauliflower purée, beef tartare, rigatoni with lamb sausages, roasted monkfish with littleneck clams, cauliflower steak, braised short rib, rotisserie chicken and a fried potato terrine. Local ingredients dominate. (Opens March 12)
30 Hudson Yards (10th Avenue and 31st Street), 332-204-8547, peaknyc.com.
Opening
American Brass
Prime waterfront real estate with the Manhattan skyline in full view distinguishes this restaurant at the edge of Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, Queens. And, with 170 seats inside and another 84 outdoors, it’s primed for all seasons. Aptly described as an American brasserie, American Brass puts ample windows, brass and antique mirrors on display. The menu also leans brasserie, featuring both clam chowder and French onion soup, assorted mussel preparations, Caesar salad, a charcuterie board, steak tartare, barbecue ribs, rotisserie chicken, roasted black sea bass, cauliflower “steak” and the inevitable burger. The chef, Raffaele Solinas, is also in charge of the kitchen at Maiella, this restaurant’s sibling. Both restaurants are owned by Tommy Demaras and Robert Briskin. (Wednesday)
2-01 50th Avenue (Center Boulevard), Long Island City, Queens, 718-806-1106, americanbrasslic.com.
Bolero
Matt Le-Khac, who was at the Finch and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, is celebrating his Vietnamese heritage in the open kitchen of his trim Williamsburg, Brooklyn, restaurant. Jimmy Tran, a Vietnamese-American from Houston who worked at Benu in San Francisco, is his right hand in the kitchen. They are serving steamed glass dumplings packed with mushrooms; ground Wagyu beef wrapped in betel leaf; poached chicken with Vietnamese coriander and cured eggs; and a typical Mekong Delta specialty, whole fried fish (he uses local blackfish), but in a Red Boat vinaigrette. Many of the herbs and vegetables come from his farm. Soon the restaurant’s backyard will yield small crops and provide room for sipping tea. The name of the restaurant comes from a dance that was popular in Saigon in the 1950s.
177 Bedford Avenue (North Seventh Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-388-6801, bolero.nyc.
Nakaji and Bar at Nakaji
A 10-seat omakase sushi bar (with tastings at $165 and $195) and a Japanese-style cocktail bar featuring drinks made with Japanese whiskeys, gins, vodkas and ingredients like shiso share the intimate speakeasy-style space in the Canal Arcade in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Stone and charred wood highlight the décor. Sushi à la carte and other small plates can be ordered at the bar.
48 Bowery (Canal Street), 646-478-8282, nakajinyc.com.
Thyme Bar
There was a dessert bar underneath Patisserie Chanson in the Flatiron district. It has since closed, and now the space, which was a speakeasy back in the day, has become a cocktail lounge with a mission of sustainability. The bartender is Colin Stevens, formerly at the Times Square Edition. Mr. Stevens tries to use spirits and other ingredients made with as little waste as possible. He has mini-greenhouses in the space for some ingredients.
20 West 23rd Street, lower level, 929-248-1116, thymebarnyc.com.
BLT Steak
After a year’s renovation, this restaurant is reopening with a sleek, neutral look in grays, black and brown. Through March 17, some of the original menu items will be available at the prices that were charged when the restaurant made its debut in 2004. Examples include a Caesar salad for $11 instead of $17; jumbo shrimp cocktail for $16 instead of $24; Dover sole for $45 instead of $65, and grilled lamb chops for $36 instead of $52.
106 East 57th Street, 212-752-7470, bltsteak.com.
Loulou
Serving French classics like ratatouille, duck confit, steak frites, charcuterie, a raw-bar selection and, for brunch, croissant French toast, this place is the very definition of a neighborhood bistro. Brick walls and hanging plants are the backdrop for booths and tables; on the lower level, there’s a speakeasy-style lounge. The chef, Jarett Brodie, worked at Craft, Bouley, Mercer Kitchen and the Knickerbocker hotel.
176 Eighth Avenue (19th Street), 212-337-9577, loulounyc.com.
Chefs on the Move
Thomas Allan
Mr. Allan, who is originally from England but grew up in Texas, was named executive chef of the Modern in the Museum of Modern Art, where he has been chef de cuisine since 2014. He replaces Abram Bissell, who now oversees the restaurants in Sydell Group’s NoMad hotels.
Looking Ahead
Indian Wells Tavern
This tavern, on Main Street in Amagansett, N.Y., has been taken over for renovations by Highway Restaurant & Bar in nearby Wainscott. It will reopen it in early summer, without losing its tavern style. TOMS Hospitality owns both, along with Manhattan restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, Loring Place and Shuko.
177 Main Street, Amagansett, N.Y.
Closings
Kreuther Handcrafted Chocolate
After four years adjacent to its mother ship, the restaurant Gabriel Kreuther, this confectionary shop and cafe has closed. There are other plans for the space, but the chocolatier expects to reopen elsewhere. In the meantime, the sweets are being sold at kreutherchocolate.com.
Palais by Perfect Pie
This French bistro-bakery by the pastry chef Bill Yosses, which opened nearly five months ago, but was underfunded, has closed.
