Our city’s ever-changing restaurant scene promises openings, big and small, formal and casual, and yummy concepts you never saw coming. So far, 2017 is becoming the year of new restaurants to look forward to.
Here are some of the latest and greatest that foodies are talking about.
ABCV
38 E. 19th Street
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s long-delayed veggie-focused restaurant, co-created by ABC Carpet & Home CEO Paulette Cole, will open early this year with a menu from chef de cuisine Neal Harden. The 75-seat restaurant will serve both vegan and vegetarian dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sure to be fresh and fabulous, and what decor!
Agern
Grand Central Terminal, 89 E 42nd Street
Legendary NOMA co-founder Claus Meyer has brought another elite restaurant to New York. Danish culinary entrepreneur Claus Meyer is a legend after NOMA in Copenhagen. His first US venture, opened a few months ago, has gourmets lining up and big waiting lists. Icelandic executive chef Gunnar Gíslason serves simple, clean but memorable dishes with distinctly Nordic flavors.
Bevy
153 West 57th Street
Housed in the former space of The Back Room in Central Park South, Bevy will feature a completely renovated interior with rustic, New American fare prepared by chef de cuisine Chad Brauze, formerly of Rotisserie Georgette.
DaDong New York
3 Bryant Park aka 1095 Sixth Avenue
Celebrity chef Dong Zhenxiang will make his stateside debut mid to late-2017. The Beijing-based concept is hailed as one of China’s best roast duck restaurants. The Bryant Park location, at Sixth Avenue and 42nd St, will be in 13,000 square feet on the second and third floors of the glass cube retail space.
Keste Wall Street
77 Fulton Street
Father and daughter pizzaioli Roberto and Giorgia Caporuscio, and Raffaele Tramma, are opening their third family-owned Neapolitan pizzeria. The new location will have 120 seats, an on-premise pizza school with individual cooking stations for hands-on courses and private events, plus house-made pastries every day. Delish!
The Spaniard
190 West 4th Street
From the team behind Bua and Wilfie & Nell, this retro throwback featuring design inspired by iconic New York restaurant institutions Keens and P.J. Clarke’s, with a menu of modernized classics.
White Gold
375 Amsterdam Avenue
April Bloomfield is one of the most highly acclaimed British chefs in New York. Her newest venture features a full-service restaurant with 38 seats that also doubles as a butcher’s shop. The location is on the Upper West Side.
DO, Cookie Dough Confections
550 LaGuardia Place
This newly opened spot in Greenwich Village is where you can eat cookie dough without guilt! It is completely safe to eat the way you’ve been sneaking it for years — straight from the mixing bowl. Enjoy some in its ready-to-eat state, mix it into ice cream, throw it in the oven to half or fully bake it. The safety secret is pasteurized egg product instead of raw egg. Plus, most of the cookie flavors can also be ordered gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan.
Playboy Club Restaurant
Cachet Boutique New York Hotel, 510 West 42nd Street
The new Cachet Boutique New York hotel opening in Midtown later this year will be home to a location of Playboy Club — returning this legendary institution to NYC for first time in more than 30 years. For this endeavor, Playboy Enterprises is teaming up with Merchants Hospitality and Cachet Hospitality Group to open the club, which will feature a lounge, a game room, and a full-service restaurant. Hosts, dining room servers, and cocktail servers will be dressed as Playboy Bunnies, according to their announced plans. The hotel will feature 100+ rooms, an outdoor Jacuzzi, and an outdoor events space. Playboy Club first opened in New York in 1962 as one of Hugh Hefner’s exclusive men’s clubs, where sometimes the models that showed up in Playboy magazine doubled as servers for the club’s clientele. The club in New York closed in 1986, along with many other locations around the world. Besides the return of a club to New York City, the plan is now to open clubs throughout Asia.
The Pickle Guys
357 Grand Street
The team behind popular Lower East Side shop The Pickle Guys is now creating an actual restaurant with a new fried pickle shop. The kosher pickle shop recently moved aross the street to a new location at 357 Grand St., where their famous retail store will be accompanied by a small, counter-service restaurant. The pickle retail portion is already open, but the restaurant won’t be ready until the spring.
The Good Sort
5 Doyers Street
Eddy Buckingham and Jeff Lam — of newly opened Chinese Tuxedo, a full restaurant in a former Chinatown opera house on Doyers — will open a small, vegan coffee and tea spot that will serve dishes that represent their respective Australian and Chinese backgrounds. This little stretch is already busy with Apothéke Cocktail Bar, underground Mexican joint Pulqueria and the famous Num Wah Tea Parlor. More the merrier!
33 Greenwich
33 Greenwich Avenue
In partnership with Ralph Lauren Home, restaurateur Danny Volk of The Upsider is opening an elegant Southern restaurant. The concept is supposed to blend New Orleans townhouse glamor with Southern diner accessibility. Expected to open in March.
Food boundaries are always in flux and good taste is at the tip of the tongue, but is so much more. Enjoy these new restaurants and watch for my next edition of Faithful Food! Happy Dining!
