Restaurants
EDITED BY ROB PATRONITE AND ROBIN RAISFELD
Week of April 15, 2002
Da Silvano Cantinetta
Silvano Marchetto has a celebrity clientele, a new cookbook, and an Italian (we think) accent that hasn't softened over more than three decades in New York. But until this week, when he opens Da Silvano Cantinetta next to his enduringly popular Da Silvano, Marchetto (pictured) never had an actual bar where customers could sip a drink (or three) during the inevitable wait. There's much more to Cantinetta than its granite-topped bar, of course, like French doors, Italian straw-bottomed seats and bar stools, tea-stained stucco applied in patches over exposed brick walls, and a vintage hand-cranked Italian slicer for perfect prosciutto. Like the flagship, this is a serious restaurant, serving codfish carpaccio, taglierini with sea urchin and avocado, and lobster catalana -- not your typical bar food. Eventually, Marchetto plans to serve eggs and pastries for breakfast, when the bar will provide a function even more crucial than accommodating Da Silvano overflow: rousing the neighborhood with foamy cups of cappuccino.
260 Sixth Avenue
212-844-0282
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 Cuisine: Italian

 

Cafe Dor�
What Brooklyn's Smith Street has lost in cr�pes, it's more than gained in roti. That's one of the pan-Caribbean specialties of Cafe Dor�, a spare but cozy nook that's moved into the former Cr�pe Factory space. The fab flatbread is dense, chewy, and delicious, perfect for mopping up a savory chicken-curry stew. Even better is a zingy jerk chicken redolent of allspice, garlic, hot peppers, ginger, and what seems like soy sauce but certainly is not, according to the Guyanese chef, Morrell Bunbury. There's also oxtail with rice and peas, steamed snapper, curried coconut shrimp, and -- to douse the flames -- a zesty house-made sorrel drink with more thirst quenchers to come as soon as the kitchen perfects them.
270 Smith Street, Brooklyn
718-246-0505
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 Cuisine: Pan-Carribean

 

win49
The long lines at Tomoe Sushi on Thompson Street are known and feared, but just because the owners have opened a takeout shop on the Lower East Side, don't expect them to shrink anytime soon. Rather than infiltrate a new neighborhood's saturated sushi market, K. Carey Yahashi and her husband, Ken, have followed in the specialized footsteps of the okonomiyaki shacks and ramen bars that have attempted to hook Americans on less-familiar treats -- in this case, the deep-fried skewered meats called kushikatsu. At win49, named for the syllable-by-syllable literal translation of the word kushikatsu, there's no limit to what you can eat on a stick, from breaded pork to quail eggs.
205 Allen Street
212-353-9494
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 Cuisine: Japanese

 

 

 
Carne
Don't think of Carne, the new Upper West Side hot spot, as a steakhouse, despite the name, the meat-and-potatoes menu, and the telltale presence of creamed spinach. "It's a mid-century-modern American bistro," says partner Alex Grossman, a designer and hospitality consultant who must have honed his image-consciousness while working on Jonathan Morr's brand. Aside from a 22-ounce rib eye and a filet mignon, there's blue-corn calamari, seared foie gras, double-thick pork chops, grilled Maine lobster, and a pasta of the day. But what separates this newcomer from the sparsely populated uptown herd is Grossman's updated diner design, the great-looking staff in cowboy shirts with snaps, and the slightly rowdy rubberneckers' scene on the elevated bar. But please, don't call it a meat market.
2737 Broadway, at 105th Street
212-663-7010
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 Cuisine: American

 

Providence
After bringing Smith Street its first Argentine steakhouse, Sur owner Maria Garcia Chiesa has expanded across the street, where she's converted a former pharmacy into a candlelit restaurant and lounge, and forsaken South America for the Mediterranean Rim. Here, she offers cucumber-and-beet salad with blood-orange yogurt dressing, saut�ed octopus with saffron potatoes, and spinach gnocchi with pancetta, ricotta, and sage. But three steaks on the menu prove that Chiesa hasn't renounced her carnivorous ways.
225 Smith St., Brooklyn
718-522-9060
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 Cuisine: Mediterranean

 

 

Openings Archive

Week of April 8
Chango, Compass, Alma, Ciao for Now, The Little Bigger Place
Week of April 1
Washington Park, Wild Lily Tea Room, Kitchenette Uptown, Industry (food), Cinnabar, Chateau, Osteria del Sole
Week of March 18
Fiamma, Blue Smoke, Rouge, Tournesol


and more ...

Photos: From top to bottom- Carina Salvi (2), Kenneth Chen, Patrik Rytikangas