Pies ‘N’ Thighs New Manhattan Location

The Brooklyn favorite Pies ‘N’ Thighs will be opening their first manhattan location today on the Lower East Side. Co-owners Sarah Sanneh and Carolyn Bane must be excited to have the gas turned on, Health Department inspection approved, and final touches finished for opening. The new 43 Canal St location has a lunch counter with retro stools as well as wooden booths and fun tiled floors. Fun fact: the retro stools at the lunch counter actually belonged to the original Pies ‘N’ Thighs on Kent Avenue that closed in 2008.

There will also be some new additions to the original menu. These additions include a cauliflower gratin, a chicken and dumplings soup, and a raw collard green salad with lime vinaigrette and smoked coconut. A new sourdough doughnut will also be introduced, which is promised by co-owner Sanneh to be the only thing of its kind in the city. Eventually there will also be some new sandwiches added to the menu. The usual menu suspects will of course be available, such as the fried chicken, biscuits and pies.

To read more coverage on the opening of the Manhattan Pies ‘N’ Thighs opening, click here

Wahlburgers Coming To NYC

Wahlburgers is a fast growing burger chain founded by actor Mark Wahlberg’s brother, Paul Wahlberg. It seems like soon the burger chain will have many more franchises and make its first appearance in New York. The family’s expansion plans were announced last month and included franchises in Florida, Vegas, Philadelphia, and Canada. No less than seven outposts were promised in New York City and the family is acting fast on this promise!

The Wahlberg brothers sold their franchise rights to John Cestare, of Big Apple Burgers, who will be overseeing all the new Wahlburger outposts in the city. The first of these outlets is aiming for a May 1st open in Coney Island. A great portion of the success and populariy of the Massachusetts outpost is in no doubt due to the A&E reality show filmed in and around the burger chain that documents all the Wahlberg family antics, but we hope they do just as well or better as the family takes the franchise nationwide!

To read more about the expansion of the Wahlburgers Boston Burger Restaurant, click here

Santina Opening Tonight Beneath High Line

The Torrisi team are at it again! Their new concept, Santina, evokes a very 1950’s Italian beach vibe as it is decorated with plenty of venetian glass chandeliers, palm trees and a vibrant neon signage. This past weekend the Torrisi team hosted a soft opening of sorts, for friends, family and members of the press. The opening of Santina to the public will be tonight and is already listed on OpenTable!

Santina will open at 820 Washington Street underneath the high line in the Meatpacking District. The restaurant will be serving a menu based on (but not bound to) traditional Italian coastal cuisine with an emphasis on seafood. According to Grubstreet, Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick’s menu will not include a lot of red meat (one dry-aged T-bone steak will be on the menu), and will also include, amongst other dishes, chickpea flour pancakes, turkey meatballs, agrodolce-glazed octopus spiedini, and a Guanciale e Pepe Stir Fried Rice (yum, see photo here). The restaurant will be open for dinner Monday-Saturday from 5PM to Midnight.

For more photos of the space and more info on the opening, click here.

Blue Ribbon Empire Expansion

The former Sambuca restaurant at 20 West 72nd Street currently has a Tony’s Di Napoli’s sign outside the window apologizing for the ‘inconvenience during transformation.” Actually, it is not the Tony’s Di Napoli family style restaurant that will be occupying the space, it will belong to the Blue Ribbon Bromberg brothers, Eric and Bruce, with partner Ken Sturm (Iridium, Campeon). The crew inside are transforming the space into a new American restaurant called, The Ribbon.

The restaurant is due to open in late February 2015, and will be able to seat up to 200 guests. The interior design will have an ‘elegant industrial’ theme including a bar top converted from a Brooklyn factory floor. The menu, which will be quite broad, will include amongst other things a raw bar and rotisserie. Private dining will also be available with a room that can seat up to 12 guests. It has been over a year since the last addition to the Blue Ribbon Empire, and this one will certainly have a big impact in the neighborhood.

To read more, click here

Mission Chinese Food Is Back!

Danny Bowien fans were very upset when Mission Chinese Food shut down at the Orchard Street location. Following a lawsuit fiasco, Danny Bowien did open a Mission Chinese Food pop-up in Brooklyn for a short while. As of this weekend, Mission Chinese Food officially reopened at 171 East Broadway. This location used to be the home of Rosette which was short lived. For now, Mission Chinese will be open only for dinner, Tuesdays through Sundays.

The reopening being just in time for Christmas, Mission Chinese Food is partnering with Russ & Daughters Cafe for Christmas dinner! For $60 per person, by reservation only for Thursday, December 25th, a family style dinner will be served with some of the favorites from Mission Chinese Food and Russ & Daughters Cafe. The dinner will take place at Russ & Daughters Cafe, at 127 Orchard Street, and reservations for the very Lower East Side Jewish Christmas with Mission Chinese Food can be made my emailing russanddaughtersrsvp@gmail.com.

For more information on the reopening of Mission Chinese Food, click here

 

 

 

 

New Jack’s Wife Freda In West Village

A second outpost of the popular brunch spot in SoHo on Lafayette Street, Jack’s Wife Freda, will be opening in the West Village tomorrow! The decor is very similar to the original location, and so is the menu aside from just a few new items. For example, the anchovy baguette with salsa verde, orange-blossom pancakes with yogurt and honey syrup, lamb tartare and mussels with coriander curry are all new additions.

The new outpost will be opening tomorrow at 50 Carmine Street, where Fatty ‘Cue used to be housed. Owners Dean and Maya Jankelowitz, state that the new location on Carmine Street will be a “natural extension” of the original on Lafayette. The space will be somewhat larger as well as the menu but the classic dishes will still be served such as the piri-piri sweetbreads, prego rolls, and matzoh ball soup.

To view some pictures of dishes at the new Jack’s Wife Freda in the West Village, click here

Vietnamese Bricolage To Open In Park Slope

Bricolage will be opening in Park Slope in the space that used to house Brooklyn Fish Camp. The people responsible for the acclaimed Slanted Door in San Francisco are opening up shop in Park Slope! The restaurant Bricolage will be serving a version of modern Vietnamese food, similar to the Slanted Door’s menu in San Francisco. The bar has already been set up as it is in the same place as it was when it was the Fish Camp, full of plenty of chairs and bar stools in the entryway. So far there is no hard opening date for Bricolage, but it seems like it could be in the near future.

The word ‘Bricolage’ implies something created or constructed from a variety of different materials, which would be very fitting for a Vietnamese fusion restaurant concept. The restaurant will open at 162 Fifth Avenue. To read more about the new Vietnamese neighborhood restaurant Bricolage opening soon in Park Slope, click here.

Defonte’s Soon To Open In Staten Island

After the sudden move of the beloved sandwich shop in Manhattan, the Defonte’s family has decided to open up shop in Staten Island! The sandwich shop which retreated to Red Hook after the Manhattan building where the outpost was located was bought by a developer, will be opening their second location this Sunday at 95 Water Street, Stapleton, Staten Island. Owner Nicholas Defonte recently stated that the Stapleton neighborhood, “reminded me a little bit of Red Hook many years ago before it got built up as it is now.”

The original sub shop opened in 1922 and hasn’t really undergone any drastic changes since. The menu will be almost identical to the Red Hook shop, and the bread used to make the massive sub sandwiches will still be delivered daily to the new outpost. To read more about the opening of Defonte’s in Staten Island this Sunday, click here

Two More Sweetgreens in NYC

The new Sweetgreen outpost in Nolita opened today! The opening is actually one day ahead of schedule, and is having a ‘Pay What You Want Day,” which is the tradition of the brand on opening day with all the proceeds going to a given charity; in this outpost the proceeds will all go to Grow NYC. The following Monday Sweetgreens will also be opening a new location in Brooklyn, in none other than Williamsburg, with the same charity event except that at this location all proceeds will be going towards Education Through Music.

Sweetgreens is having a really great run, especially in recent months given their $18.5 million boost from investors including Danny Meyer and Daniel Boulud. Both new New York City locations were designed by local artists to give a contemporary feel. The furniture in the Brooklyn location is mainly made from reclaimed oak from the company Aellon and Uluru (based in Brooklyn). The menu items also have a New York theme including seasonal ingredients such as pears, apples, cheddar and many fall vegetables.

To read more about the two new Sweetgreens locations in New York City, click here

Rossopomodoro Opens In Greenwich Village

The Neapolitan pizza chain Rossopomodoro, known as Eataly’s inner pizza place, has opened it’s first outpost outside of Eataly. The new Rossopomodoro opened last Thursday in the former Cole’s Greenwich Village space at 118 Greenwich Avenue. The space has multiple dining rooms with marble tabletops and hanging light fixtures as well as a fully-equipped bar and gilded pizza oven similar in shape to the gold pizza oven that once was at Donatella in Chelsea. Rossopomodoro also has some pantry items on display which are available for purchase.

The menu includes a great pizza selection with a variety of toppings such as squash, gorgonzola and guanciale, as well as a great selection of pasta courses such as ricotta ravioli, linguine with sea urchin and the classic tagliatelle alla bolognese. The cocktail menu is also in keeping with the Italian theme as they are serving many Italian liquors such as limoncello, Campari, Aperol and different Amari. To check out some pictures of the new space and to read more about the opening, click here