Headliner
Central Park Boathouse
It will soon be spring and the Boathouse, which has been a fixture on the edge of the lake in Central Park since 1954 and has had its share of rough sailing, is about to reopen. Legends, the company that runs the food outlets at Yankee Stadium and elsewhere, is now the operator, and the executive chef is Adam Fiscus, working with Dave Pasternack, the consulting chef. Lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch will be served in a setting that’s been refreshed with a color scheme that nods to the plumage of the bluebirds and other avian inhabitants of the park. Visitors can record their sightings in a Boathouse bird registry. The main dining room will feature dishes suggesting traditional Continental style, with oysters Rockefeller, stuffed mushrooms, spaghetti with lobster, fish and chips at lunch, fillet of beef au poivre, prime rib with Yorkshire pudding, and cheesecake. The brunch menu will include crab cakes Benedict. There will also be a three-course children’s menu. An outdoor cafe area on the north side of the building offers takeout fare with seating for 80; a new indoor cafe area, the Fireside Room has a courtyard. Dockside dining with a separate menu will open later. (Opens Monday)
72nd Street and Park Drive North, Central Park,centralparkboathouse.com.
Opening
Ahgassi
Bobby Kwak and Joseph Ko of Circle Group, have closed their Korean barbecue restaurant Baekjeong and replaced it with another version of Korean barbecue dining, one that emphasizes offal, or gopchang, prepared in various ways. The restaurant, on two floors, is now decorated with traditional Korean folk art. As for Baekjeong, its success has the partners moving it to a more spacious location nearby at 49 West 32nd Street, the former KumGangSan, nearly double the size, on two floors with 300 seats.
1 East 32nd Street, 212-966-9839, ahgassigopchangnyc.com.T
L’Americana
It’s an Italian bistro serving Italian-style cocktails and small plates like black arancini with octopus and lime and spaghetti aglio and olio. Takuma Watanabe, a partner in Martiny’s, is an owner, and the chef is Suchandrima Mukherjee, who goes by Suzy.
51 Irving Place (17th Street), 212-510-8383, lamericana-nyc.com.
Ourhaus
Erin Norris closed Grindhaus, her Red Hook restaurant, late last year. She has now renamed it and is serving dishes that are somewhat, but not exclusively Asian, like arancini with Chinese sausage, lamb bao, spinach-ricotta gnudi and a fever dream of a chicken breast breaded with panko, stuffed with Velveeta and scallions and served over tonkatsu slaw. Ms. Norris is joined in the kitchen by Allie Gassaway, formerly of Fort Defiance.
275 Van Brunt Street (Pioneer Street), Red Hook, Brooklyn, 347-597-3063, ourhausredhook.com.
Savta
The storefront that for decades housed the Zito & Sons bakery in the West Village until it closed in 2004, has been home to several restaurants since. The latest occupant is one where an important component of the menu is baked goods. Milk bread, multigrain loaves and croissants at the table and available for retail sales on weekends, are the work of Vincent Benoliel, an owner of Pasta Corner in Midtown, and the owner of Michelina, a Los Angeles bakery. The name, which means grandmother in Hebrew, refers to his own grandmother, a French restaurateur. Pizzas, Japanese eggplant, and cioppino are some of the dishes to be served in the rustic setting with a back patio. (Wednesday)
259 Bleecker Street (Cornelia Street), 212-255-1234, savtanyc.com.
The Alderman
Restaurants in hotels are the specialty of Renwick Hospitality. This one is inside the Motto, a Hilton property near Times Square. As with the others, the corporate chef and a partner, Carsten Johanssen, is working with founding partner Gary Wallach. Here, the executive chef Steven Hubbell has rethought some classics for dishes like black pepper-fried catfish, grilled sunchokes with onion purée, a smash burger, pan-roasted steelhead, and roast duck with juniper glaze and parsnip gratin. The hotel’s website suggests that the place evokes the Gilded Age but odds are that in those days bread and butter would not have set you back $14 (the butter is cultured after all) nor would a pickle plate command $16, gilding indeed. (Thursday)
Motto by Hilton New York City Times Square, 150A West 48th Street, 212-668-8648, aldermannyc.com.
