Restaurants
EDITED BY ROB PATRONITE AND ROBIN RAISFELD
Week of April 22, 2002
DoSirak
As it turns out, man cannot live by yams alone: Hero's, the quirky Village Japanese fast-food joint singularly devoted to dishes made with starchy, pale-yellow-fleshed Japanese sweet potatoes, has expanded into a Korean bibimbop shop called DoSirak. Hero's owner Hirokazu Sakai is mired in visa troubles, which are forcing him to return to Japan next month. So to the rescue has come Suzy Yang, a Korean-American neighbor who bought the business from Sakai, redecorated, and introduced traditional Korean dishes like bibimbop and — echoing the former theme — jap chae bop, thin noodles made from sweet potatoes and saut�ed with vegetables. Will Yang keep the sweet spuds all over the menu — even (our favorite) the baked tubers topped with peanut butter? "We will," she says between giggles. "There's a limited but very loyal sweet-potato clientele out there."
30 East 13th Street
646-336-1685
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 Cuisine: Korean

 

Tocqueville Cafe
For an elegant urban restaurant, Tocqueville is doubly blessed by its proximity to New York City nature (such as it is). Not only is it up the street from the Union Square Greenmarket — it also happens to face a trio of pear trees, the perfect backdrop for the restaurant's new sidewalk caf�. And though chef Marco Moreira has devised a new alfresco menu of light, luxurious bites like Brazilian crab cake with malagueta-pepper-and-lime vinaigrette, a mini-burger with lobster and tomato relish, and hach� lobster salad, we're most excited about the return of his prosciutto-and-asiago panini, accessorized with white-truffle oil and a sunny-side-up pheasant egg.
15 East 15th Street
212-647-1515
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 Cuisine: Eclectic


Openings Archive

Week of April 15
Da Silvano Cantinetta, Cafe Dor�, win49, Carne, Providence
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

and more ...

Photos: From top to bottom- Carina Salvi; Patrik Rytikangas