Headliner
Sandro’s
The chef Sandro Fioriti has owned a restaurant bearing his name in New York since 1985. Now, at 74, he’s still tossing pasta, in a new location. He opened his first with the help of Tony May at 420 East 59th Street, previously occupied by the super-luxe Palace. (It is now Pino Luongo’s Morso.) Then, in 2006, after a few interim gigs, he opened his spot on the Upper East Side, at 306 East 81st Street. That restaurant closed in February, and he has relocated to East 86th Street, in the former Little Frog. Throughout he was noted for his cuisine, inspired by his native Umbria and Rome, where he trained, long before Roman food achieved its current prominence in New York. He is now joined by his son, Sandro Fioriti Jr., who runs the restaurant, with his father in the kitchen turning out his well-regarded spaghetti al limone, rigatoni amatriciana, cacio e pepe, fried artichokes and pollo cacciatora alla romana. The younger Mr. Fioriti, who has been involved for the past eight years, said that the menu was essentially the same as it was on 81st Street, and that the kitchen and dining room staff also made the move. There are 56 seats in a somewhat formal room with a big bar, white napery and white brick walls.
322 East 86th Street, 212-288-7374, sandrosrestaurant.com.
Opening
Ju Qi
Han Tong, who started this chain with a 16-table restaurant in Beijing in 2002, has grown it to more than 20 outlets, mostly in Beijing, with one in Sydney, Australia, and now, New York. The design is based on the humble Hutong neighborhoods of Beijing but with refined, even imperial touches. The vast menu includes braised pork tendon soup with scallions, fried tofu, sautéed shredded potatoes with lard dregs, cucumber salad, hairtail rolls, mashed potatoes in the shape of a hare, and also crowd-pleasers like sweet-and-sour spare ribs, kung pao chicken and hot-and-sour soup.
133-36 37th Avenue, #F10 and G17 (Prince Street), Flushing, Queens, 929-608-9797, juqiusa.com.
Léon 1909
With her father, Robert Mnuchin, a founder of the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Conn., Valerie Mnuchin is opening this restaurant on Shelter Island. She named it for her grandfather Léon Mnuchin, who spent his summers in the area. A former bank building near the popular Crescent Beach, it now has a rustic elegance with exposed brick, wooden trusses, a lofty ceiling and a working wood-burning hearth. A pergola shelters the outdoor patio. The executive chef, Mason Lindahl, is looking to Provence and Italy for inspiration. Heirloom tomatoes with aioli, strozzapreti with tomato and basil, roast leg of lamb, and local striped bass dressed with Picholine olives, lemon and peperonata are all on the menu. (Opens Thursday)
29 West Neck Road (North Menantic Road), Shelter Island, N.Y., 631-749-9123, leon1909.com.
