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
· Cuisine: Italian
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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
· Cuisine: Pan-Carribean
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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
· Cuisine: Japanese
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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
· Cuisine: American
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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
· Cuisine: Mediterranean
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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
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