Precious Gems in the West Village

New York Times

28-01-2025

Opening
This takes the trajectory of the chef Jiho Kim's career in a more luxurious direction than its Michelin-starred predecessor, Joomak Banjum, which closed in 2024. Mr. Kim, who trained as a pastry chef and has worked at the Modern, brings some of that expertise to the intimate 27-seat jewel box designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen. An 8-course tasting menu ($280) combines Asian, American and French inspirations, like scallop with truffle and smoked dashi panna cotta; king crab with a gochujang tuile; and duck breast with a quince tarte Tatin. (There is also a vegetarian only menu for $250.) A banana bread pudding is a baroque affair involving chocolate mousse, crème brûlée and lychee with a side of butter beer ice cream. (Opens Wednesday)
Madison Hudson, 401 West Street (Charles Street), joomaknyc.com.
Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns have taken over this single-lane space (formerly Flynn McGarry's Gem Wine) to give their popular Ha's Dac Biet pop-ups a more permanent home. It opened earlier this month. Among some highlights from the ever-changing menu are leeks with oysters and chile crisp, and Anthony's way with onion soup and branzino with caramelized nuoc mam. The menu reflects their experiences in France and Italy through a Southeast Asian lens; as they advise on Instagram: 'everything contains fish sauce.'
297 Broome Street (Forsyth Street), no phone, Instagram: @has_dac_biet.
City Winery already has quite an installation on the food-heavy Pier 57. Now Michael Dorf, the founder, has added this agave bar deep inside its main corridor. El Bar boasts more than 400 iterations of agave, the plant that provides the basis for tequila, mezcal and a host of other libations, along with some adjacent distillates like corn, mango and pineapple. They can be sampled neat, in flights and in cocktails. Beers and wines are also poured. As for something to munch, the choices are much more limited, amounting to guacamole and chips with salsa. (Friday)
El Bar, elbarnyc.com.
Every morning is a Sunday at this new bakery that produces only sweet cinnamon buns with more heft than a Quarter Pounder. The cinnamon peeks subtly through on the inside but it's beside the point; the buns, in 10 flavors, are laden on top and over the top with doses of icing, nuts, fruit and even cheese, all highly Instagrammable. The owners are the chef Armando Litiatco, in partnership with Ahmet Kiranbay; both own Rana Fifteen, an Aegean restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
29 Avenue B (East Third Street),sundaymorningnyc.com.
Marc Spitzer, who has been the executive chef of the BondSt restaurants for more than 20 years, has opened a restaurant in the village of Roslyn, in Nassau County. With a real estate investor, Noam Shemel, he is putting a creative, sometimes Western spin on Japanese ingredients with dishes like a duck confit salad with blood orange miso and pickled Tokyo turnips, sake-braised short ribs, red miso lamb chops with yuzu potato gratin, and cribbed from his menus at BondSt, bigeye tuna tarts. Chocolate and shiitake dust complicate an espresso martini. It's in a traditional two-story house given a Japanese aesthetic by Carlita Alexander, a Rockwell Group alum. (Thursday)
1401 Old Northern Boulevard (Main Street), Roslyn, N.Y., 516-621-3300, okaruroslyn.com.
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