Headliner
Wan Wan
Erika Chou, who owns Wayla on the Lower East Side and Kimika in NoLIta, has added this Thai restaurant to her portfolio, in partnership with Tom Naumsuwan, a Bangkok native, who will be the executive chef. In a setting with exposed brick, velvet banquettes, an Art Deco chandelier and touches of gold leaf, he will focus on regional Thai dishes, especially from Phuket, where there is a Chinese influence. On the menu are taw hu tod, a tofu dish with spicy peanut sauce; nun gai tod (crispy chicken skin with garlic and salt); moo tod nam pla (fried pork belly glazed with fish sauce); and a number of noodle dishes, like mee hok kien (stir-fried yellow noodles with mushrooms, scallions and fried kale). Cocktails like a pandan colada share the drink list with nonalcoholic choices, including the koh emerald, a refresher made with cucumber juice, makrut lime, dill, mint and soda.
209 Mulberry Street (Spring Street), wanwannyc.com.
Opening
Saito
Daisuke Nakazawa, who was the highly regarded chef of Sushi Nakazawa in the West Village and in Washington, D.C., and is an owner of the restaurants, has opened a sake bar with his executive chef, Hitoshi Fujita, known as Jin. A limited menu featuring seafood, especially uni, accompanies wine, beer and 60 sakes in an intimate, 18-seat dining room with a 10-seat bar to open later. The chef is Daniel Tun Win.
72 Kenmare Street (Mulberry Street), 646-590-2969, nycsaito.com.
Bica
Carlos and Victor Pedro own this cafe serving breakfast and lunch. Their father, Alfredo, founded Ipanema, a Brazilian restaurant on West 46th Street that closed last year after years of business. Ipanema will reopen soon, adjacent to Bica, which serves chicken croquettes, empanadas, sandwiches with mortadella piled on Brazilian pão bread, piri piri chicken and pastries like pastel de nata. The setting is at once tropical with rattan furniture, and traditionally decorated with Portuguese tiles.
3 West 36th Street, 212-730-5848, ipanema.co.
Mission Sandwich Social
A native of Flushing, Queens, of Chinese and Korean background, Brian Tsao lived in China, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and was the chef de cuisine at Beauty & Essex. He has now turned his attention to inventive sandwiches that nod to his roots, with combinations like Peking turkey with Cheddar and hoisin sesame dressing, and Korean barbecue short ribs with mozzarella, kimchi, French fries and gochugaru. Latin American, Mexican and classic American subs like the Bensonhurst, which takes its cue from chicken Parm, are also on the menu. He’s having a local bakery make San Francisco Dutch Crunch bread, a white roll with a crisp coating of rice flour, for his sandwiches.
326 Bedford Avenue (South Second Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 347-529-5328, missionsandwich.com.
