A NEW NOOK

Looking for a hot new dinner-date spot? Check out the recently opened Musket Room in Nolita, showcasing culinary ingenuity by way of New Zealand, a country known for its adventure sports and now daring epicurean feats: “Your chef here hails from NZ. And on his way here, he also did some fine work at Public and Saxon+Parole, where it appears he ruminated on the art of the flawless date spot,” reports UrbanDaddy.com. “You’ve got candlelit nooks with blue leather banquettes, garden views, walls of wine, and…delicate plates of whole quail.”

The Musket Room

photo via

GREAT DATES

Looking for a hot new Monday-night date spot? Check out Melibea opening tonight on Bank Street from the team behind West Village tapas restaurant Barraca. Of this new Mediterranean venue, UrbanDaddy.com says, “This is where good dates come to become great.”The interior is “a sort of highly filtered Instagram of an old-school Barcelona theater, where an etched-granite bar is the wine-stocked stage. The name comes from a 15th-century Spanish play.”Pair it with a viewing of “Blancanieves”at the Angelika, and you’ve got one arty night out. Yep, de nada.

Melibea NYC

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FARM-TO-TABLE PIZZA

It was only a matter of time before the classic New York City slice got the farm-to-table treatment. Leave it to restaurateur Miki Agrawal of Slice to re-imagine this local staple as a healthy alternative on thin gluten-free, vegan crust, no less. Now open in the West Village, Wild is pizza-gone-wild (albeit on Skinnygirl cocktails) just in time for spring break. While the Gorgonzola, pear, date, and rosemary pie sounds seriously good, DailyCandy.com advises, “Dig into veggie-packed kale, frisee, and field salads, and Brussels sprouts four ways with bacon creme fraiche, or beet it with a grainy salad and citrus yogurt.” 

Farm Fresh Pizza in the West Village

photo via

A WREN BY ANY OTHER NAME

Cementing the gastropub formula near perfected at Wren downtown, the folks behind this Bowery local and the West Village’s Wilfie & Nell have expanded to north of the Villages to terra incognita, Second Avenue between 82^nd and 83^rd to be precise. For the newly minted Penrose, they’ve enlisted a Michelin-star chef for delicious bites like buttermilk-fried chicken and battered sausage to complement the heavy scotch menu. Says UrbanDaddy.com, it’s “basically the Wren, but bigger and with 37 percent more old portraits,” which means lots of comfy nooks for conversing.

Upper East Side’s Penrose

REBIRTH OF COOL

It seems like New York City’s fixation with revivalist nightlife has flashed-forward from the Roaring ’20s to the Roaring 2000s of the Meatpacking District: The first evidence of this new trend was the Pink Elephant’s gallant return in late May and now Bungalow 8’s grand opening last week (renamed No. 8 because, as UrbanDaddy.com observes, “just calling it ‘Definitely Not Bungalow 8 Anymore’ would have been crass”). Celeb revelers, like Zoe Saldana and Anne Hathaway, were among the first to check out the upscale gastropub with tableside champagne service at Amy Sacco’s new-old hotspot.
No. 8 (The nightclub formerly known as Bungalow 8)

KONNICHIWA, IZAKAYAS

Izakayas are Japan’s version of Spanish tapas bars and Irish gastropubs—and now they’re the newest trend cropping up around downtown. Keeping up with this newfound style, Kourtney Kardashian’s TV beau Scott Disick teamed up with the Fatty Crew’s Jesse Camac to open Ryu in the Meatpacking District (with a grand opening party last month that brought out all the Kardashian gals, of course), and likewise, the Bromberg brothers of Blue Ribbon Sushi also opened their take on this Japanese tradition in the Thompson Hotel LES. Douzo meshiagare!

Japanese Restaurant RYU opens to the Kardashian Klan

 BUNGALOW 8’S NINE LIVES
In its obituary to the late-Bungalow 8 back in 2009, Gawker.com
predicted that Amy Sacco’s celeb-frequented haven might not be done:
“That her last remaining NYC venue has now closed doesn’t mean the
Bungalow 8 brand is entirely finished.” And now it seems three years
after its shuttering, Bungalow 8 is back—and may have already found a
new home somewhere in the Meatpacking District according to rumors
lighting up the Twitterverse, according to Eater.com. Bungalow had its
heyday during the cosmo-soaked glory days of “Sex and the City,” so
reopening now seems perfectly timed for the launch of “The Carrie
Diaries.” Just saying.
Bungalow 8’s new space to open in May

SOUTH OF HOUSTON SOUTHERN

The East Village restaurant Back Forty is moving on up, but not to the
east side, west is more like it: “Peter Hoffman, one of the first NYC
chefs to be notably obsessed with the Union Square Greenmarket, has
just opened a new location of his casual [spot] in the space of his
Soho icon Savoy,” reports Eater.com. “The 85-seat restaurant will
serve a menu from Back Forty’s longtime chef Shanna Pacifico that is
similar to that of its four year-old sister.” For now, the menu is
South of Houston with a Southern accent: “We’re talking chicken and
waffles, a pulled pork sandwich, green chili fork face nuggets, a
grilled kale salad, and a rendition of their famous burger.”
Back Forty West Now Open for Lunch in Old Savoy via Eater

Images via Eater and Urbanspoon

ALISON BECKER IS BACK

Looking for a new spot to nosh in the Flatiron? Try Alison Eighteen,
the freshly minted restaurant over on 18th Street. Says Paper
magazine, “Alison Price Becker is killing it again at Alison Eighteen,
a two-week-old brasserie in a historic loft building in the Flatiron
district. The space was created by the same design team, Asfour Guzy,
which created the original Alison on Dominick, a romantic hotspot that
reigned in Soho from 1989 to 2002.” Becker has enlisted chef Robert
Gurvich once again to give his signature TLC to the menu’s “gutsy
French-American food.” Oolala! Bookmark that for Valentine’s Day.
Alison Becker is back with Alison 18: Is it the new Elaines?

Photo Credit: Elle Decor

ALLSWELL IN WILLIAMSBURG

Spotted Pig alumni, chef Nate Smith opened his new restaurant and bar in Williamsburg earlier this week inside the former digs of Raymund’s on Bedford Avenue. The new, brightly colored gastropub-style venue called Allswell serves “a bar-centric menu that should change dramatically throughout the week with dishes like shellfish stew, fried tripe, potted pork, and corned beef and cabbage pie,” reports Eater.com. It’s anyone’s guess whether or not savory bites, like anchovy fritters, will draw the A-list celebrity crowd that the Spotted Pig does, however, for now, it’s going to start out as a dinner-only spot, but will add lunch, brunch, and late-night service soon. Allswell that ends well, or in this case is just beginning.

Allswell over at Eater.com

Photo via Eater