Food

The Team Behind Lodi and Estela Opens Restaurants in the Nine Orchard Hotel

Headliner

Nine Orchard, Corner Bar and Lobby Lounge

Like a number of grand downtown commercial structures, the 1912 Beaux-Arts building that housed the Jarmulowsky Bank in the Lower East Side has been repurposed into a hotel. DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, the building’s owner, oversaw the completion of the restoration. The guest rooms at the hotel, Nine Orchard, will be available for booking on June 20, but two of its three dining spaces — Corner Bar, a bistro, and Lobby Lounge — are already serving food and drinks. Mattos Hospitality, the chef Ignacio Mattos’s company, will run these, along with the Amado Grill, an intimate, 44-seat fine-dining restaurant to open in September adjacent to Corner Bar. (Mattos Hospitality also operates Lodi in Rockefeller Center, Estela and Altro Paradiso.) Mr. Mattos, who once lived in the neighborhood and accepted the opportunity to handle food and beverage for the hotel, including room service, said he was smitten with the assignment. Corner Bar will emphasize tavern food, with raw-bar specialties, chicken liver mousse, steak au poivre, cod with leeks, roasted chicken with morels, boudin blanc, and spaghetti with tomato sauce; it will be open for breakfast and dinner, with lunch to follow soon. The wine list will be American because, as Mr. Mattos put it, visitors should be able to appreciate what’s being made here. The Lobby Lounge, installed in a former bank teller room with arched windows and a vaulted ceiling, will offer cocktails with small plates like oysters, cheeses and shrimp cocktail, and will also add tea service. Plans are in the works for a private event space on the 14th-floor rooftop.

9 Orchard Street (Canal Street), 212-804-9900, cornerbarnyc.com, nineorchard.com.

Opening

53

This elaborate new contemporary Asian restaurant is a departure for Ahmass Fakahany’s Altamarea Group, known for Italian dining. Mr. Fakahany lived in Asia for 10 years and said he has long been tempted to try his hand at an “Asian cuisine experience.” Designed by ICRAVE and installed in the new Jean Nouvel-designed apartment tower, just west of the Museum of Modern Art, the restaurant has a dramatic cocktail lounge set under a series of half-dome slats on the ground floor. Beneath the lounge is the main dining room, covered by a roof with a continuation of the slats in a rainbow of colors. Akmal Anuar, who is from Singapore and runs restaurants in Asia and the Middle East, is the chef and a partner. At his side is Mark Yu, the executive chef, whose experience is rooted in New York at Pastis and Catch. On their menu, appetizers, including some dim sum like crystal dumplings and fluke kombujime, are grouped as hot or cold; other dishes are filed according to technique, like steamed (razor clams, bok choy), grilled (lamb ribs), clay pot (duck, tiger prawn), and wok (quail, pea shoots with belechan). The name is a reference to the street it’s on and the building number. (Opens Wednesday)

53 West 53rd Street, 646-535-3994, 53-nyc.com.

Coco Shack

The restaurateur Pino Luongo is on the move. A short while ago, he moved his restaurant, Coco Pazzo, from Prince Street to 307 Spring Street (Hudson Street), which he took over last year, and changed the name to Coco Pazzo Trattoria. Now he’s opening this seafood spot, not far from the old Coco Pazzo space. Its Italian roots can be found in crudo and tagliolini with sea urchin, but he goes much farther afield with swordfish tacos, seafood paella, and shrimp and grits. The chef, David Camara, worked in Hawaii. (Friday)

184 Prince Street (Sullivan Street), 917-675-7500, cocoshacknyc.com.

Noortwyck

Andrew Quinn, who was an executive sous-chef at Eleven Madison Park, has joined with Cedric Nicaise, a former wine director there, to open this American restaurant with a seasonal approach in the corner space that housed John Fraser’s the Loyal until the pandemic. The English-born Mr. Quinn’s menu features curried cashews, scallop crudo with grapefruit, kale salad with avocado, salmon with peppers and tomato, smoked hanger steak with spring onions, cherry tart with almonds, and, for an English touch, lemon posset with ice cream and rhubarb. The 70-seat room is done in earthy tones, and the name is said to be the colloquial Dutch for “North District,” at one time the name for the area that was the West Village. Bridgette Zou is also a partner, handling the business’s creative and marketing aspects.

289 Bleecker Street (Seventh Avenue South), thenoortwyck.com.

Avra Estiatorio Rockefeller Center

The third and largest edition of the Greek restaurant Avra has opened in a soaring space in the former Time & Life Building across from Radio City Music Hall. Seating for nearly 500 is spread across a main dining room, featuring an expanse of outdoor tables and a mezzanine, and a cellar restaurant with a private room and an open kitchen. It’s all done in pale limestone, bronze and natural linen. Water accents, like fountains and waterfalls, and greenery enhance the Mediterranean look and echo Avra’s other locations. New to the menu are a fresh fennel soup and sashimi cut from a whole fish.

1271 Avenue of the Americas (50th Street), 212-430-8888, theavragroup.com.

Emilia by Nai

This intimate East Village spot offering seafood- and vegetable-based small plates is the latest in a collection from the Spanish chef and restaurateur Ruben Rodriguez’s Nai Restaurant Group. Though his native Galicia is said to inspire the food, there’s a definite Japanese influence on display: Think monkfish liver mousse, roasted beets with tofu tempura, and shrimp croquettes with lemon mayonnaise and nori powder. The restaurant, named for his grandmother, has an open kitchen and seating at a counter and tables. (Wednesday)

174 First Avenue (11th Street), nairestaurant.com/emilia.

Brooklyn DOP

It sounds official, with the DOP in the name standing for Denominazione di Origine Protetta, the Italian government organization that regulates food and beverages. But it isn’t involved here. It’s the owners Thomas Gian Ardito and Jason D’Amelio’s way of stating that they’re serious about their pizza. Mr. Ardito, who owns a neighborhood gym, turned to making pizzas at home with dough he allowed to ferment for four days (he had time) and began selling them on weekends.After bringing on Mr. D’Amelio as a business partner, they rented a storefront. This week, the pizzeria, done in red, black, tile and marble with gold accents, opens full-time for Margherita, white, grandma and thick Sicilian pies. (Friday)

237 Fifth Avenue (Carroll Street), Park Slope, Brooklyn, 347-599-1913, @brooklyndop.

Peachy Keen

Channeling the 1970s with a Reuben sandwich, chicken and dumplings, root beer floats and a cocktail called A Clockwork Orange, made with tangerine tequila, Grand Marnier and other citrus flavors, is the plan at this bright new multifaceted spot with a couple of bars, a dining room and a parlor.

321 West 44th Street, 212-245-2337, peachykeennyc.com.

L’Huîtrerie at Les Trois Chevaux

Angie Mar is adding an outdoor oyster bar to her restaurant for the summer. Seats for 24 alongside the Les Trois Chevaux building on West Fourth Street will be available from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, weather permitting. East and West Coast oysters, shrimp, duck rillettes and radishes with butter can be accompanied by wines by the glass or bottle from a brief list.

283 West 12th Street (West Fourth Street), 917-261-6085, anglie-mar.com.

Parkers at Thompson Central Park

Charlie Parker, the jazz great, is the inspiration for this new cocktail lounge with live music by guest performers. Is it a coincidence that the hotel was originally the Parker-Meridien?

119 West 56th Street, 212-245-5000, hyatt.com.

Smorgasburg

This season, this food market operator run the concessions for Celebrate Brooklyn, kicking off Wednesday with a free concert from Kamasi Washington in the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park at 6 p.m. (Smorgasburg operates weekly in Prospect Park, Jersey City and Miami.) Then, on June 18, Smorgasburg Williamsburg will open, with more than 60 vendors in Marsha P. Johnson State Park, 90 Kent Avenue (North Seventh Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And for July and August, Smorgasburg is also adding Toronto to its roster of cities.

smorgasburg.com.

Front of House

Access to signature merchandise from restaurants is available on this new online marketplace created by restaurateurs and others. The idea is to develop new revenue streams for the participating restaurants. About a dozen have joined so far, and there are more to come.

foh.xyz.

Chefs on the Move

Omar Tate

Mr. Tate, a Philadelphia-based chef who had a residency at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, has organized the Cultivating Community Dinner Series — to support the National Black Farmers Association — with the gin company Bombay Bramble, a partner. The first of three will be on June 29 at the new Oko Farms establishment, 105 River Street (North Third Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mr. Tate will also hold dinners in Atlanta and Charleston, S.C. Tickets for the Brooklyn dinner are $250. For tickets, exploretok.com, starting Thursday.

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