Craving something new? We’ve got you covered.
Whether you’re bored with all your favorite dining spots, looking for a new neighborhood standby, or plotting to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the next big dining trend, the city will always meet your needs with new restaurants.
Here’s a look at some recent openings that will mix up your diet and expand your palate.
THE CHEAP(ER) EATS
Avocaderia Chelsea
With a $400,000 investment from the judges’ panel on “Shark Tank,” the Brooklyn all-avocado café has planted a new seed in Manhattan. It’s introducing new spring menu items — including avocado toast topped with Italian burrata — at its counter-service location inside the Terminal Stores Building, a former warehouse and train terminal that now houses hip tenants like Uber and La Colombe. The usual roster of dishes includes breakfast and lunch bowls, salads, smoothies and guacamole.
27 11th Ave.; opened May 17; avocaderia.com
German’s Soup
When Guyanese-Americans return to the homeland over the holidays, they stop for soup and Creole dishes at the original German’s in Georgetown, founded by the late Hubert “German” Urling Sr. in 1960. Now Urling’s sons have expanded his culinary dominion to Brooklyn, where their small kitchen is serving cow heel soup ($7 for a small, $8 for a large), pepperpot (a meat stew made with cassave root, $8 for a small portion, $9 for a large), pork curry, barbecue chicken and sides like macaroni pie, stewed okra and cookup rice (rice mixed with meat and herbs in coconut milk). To drink, you’ll want to try the housemade mauby, a fermented beverage that’s made from the bark of the Mauby tree with sugar and spices.
793 Utica Ave., Brooklyn; opened May 14; germanssoup.com
Chicha
Inspired by the street-side barbecues and cafés of Nicaragua, this new Bushwick restaurant from Vanessa Palazio (of the Little Muenster grilled cheese shop) and husband Adam Schneider is serving snack foods like quesillos (corn tortillas topped with Oaxacan cheese and more), family-style plates to share and South American and Caribbean-inspired cocktails. Get an order of pork shoulder with sour orange maduros, crispy rice and tortillas for the table ($21), and a True R(h)umance ($13) for yourself, made to order with three kinds of rum. You’ll be drawn into the former warehouse garage space by an overhead skylight, a tropical-themed mural on the back wall and patterned banquettes.
198 Randolph St., Brooklyn; opened May 3; chichanyc.com
THE WEEKNIGHT GO-TOS
Anchor Bar
The self-proclaimed creator of the Buffalo wing has landed in New York City, with its 11th franchise location in Hell’s Kitchen. The space is split into a sports bar and a dining room, welcoming both the after-work crowd and families. Anchor Bar’s new outpost offers all kinds of comfort foods, from onion rings to pizza to burgers, but you’ll obviously be ordering some of those “world famous” Buffalo-style chicken wings, available in eight kinds of sauces and three kinds of rubs, and served with celery sticks and blue cheese. A 10-piece platter is $13.99, but you can go as big as a 50-piece bucket, for $59.99.
327 W. 57th St.; opened May 17; anchorbar.com/nyc
Vintage61
The name for this Seaport District “sports bistro,” as owners Jason Casano and Laurent Vasseur are calling it, is inspired by a year good to both the New York Yankees and Bordeaux wine. The menu, which is divided into baseball-themed categories like “On Deck” and “Extra Innings,” features American bistro fare with French influences (think steak frites, all kinds of burgers and chopped salad). A complimentary wine list includes selections from the U.S., Europe, Africa and South America. As for the space, you won’t be lacking for TV screens and you’ll be entertained by accents like chairs resembling baseball mitts and wooden tabletops inscribed with inspiration quotes from sports heros.
233-235 Front St.; opened May 15; vintage61.com
Una Pizza Napoletana
Jersey-born pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri returns to New York City after an eight-year stretch in San Francisco. The new Una Pizza Napoletana is serving the same wood-fired, 12-inch Neapolitan pies Mangieri has been churning out since age 15, but this time, they have some company: small plates like shaved turnips with ’nduja-mascarpone and desserts like strawberry panna cotta from Wildair and Contra chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. To accompany the plated offerings, a wine list offers all-natural, mostly Italian selections. The aesthetic of the interior has been described as “deco-meets-industrial.”
175 Orchard St.; opened April 30; unapizza.com
THE WEEKEND SPLURGES
Woodpecker
Chef David Burke’s creative approach to American fare is on display at his new restaurant in NoMad, with signature dishes like maple candied bacon on a “clothesline” and pastrami salmon on the menu alongside some new additions: lobster calzones with the tail sticking out ($36); “Grillos” pizza, made with cricket dough and baked with crickets, tomato and jalapeno pesto ($16); and “hipster fries” loaded with parmesan, bacon, shishito peppers and chili oil ($12). The main seating area features a large communal table, a 35-foot bar, and quirky embellishments like cuckoo clocks, and paint-can flower vases. Until the restaurant secures its liquor license, it’s BYOB.
30 W. 30th St; opened May 14; woodpeckerbydb.com
Yamada Chikara New York
From an alum of the renowned Spanish restaurant El Bulli (closed in 2011), comes another Manhattan’s latest Japanese omakase offering. Chef Chikara Yamada’s first eatery in the U.S. doesn’t specialize in sushi; rather, the focus of its $180 tasting menu is kushiage, a dish of deep-fried skewered meat and vegetables. Skewers on the debut 10- to 12-course menu include a combo of oyster and bacon; a trio of gorgonzola, apple and honey; and sea urchin with soba powder and seaweed. The whole gastronomic experience ends with a match tea ceremony.
249 E. 49th St., Manhattan; opened May 2; 808-366-2637
Bistrot Leo
Restaurateur John McDonald has flipped his downtown Italian eatery into a French bistro helmed by a Daniel Boulud protégé, Brian Loiacono. Bistrot Leo is open for dinner now, but aims to serve all three meals of the day, seven days a week, once it’s fully up and running. Start off your meal with some crudité with smoked onion aioli for the table ($11), and then kick things into higher gear with some foie gras on brioche ($24) or some escargot in a garlic butter sauce ($21). For your main course, options include steak frites ($38), naturally, and an Atlantic wild cod poached in olive oil and accompanied by chorizo, capers and a white bean purée ($32). Tablecloths and floral-patterned wallpaper grace the main dining room here, so you’ll feel fancy even before the hefty check hits the table at the end of your meal.
60 Thompson St.; opened in early April; bistrotleo.com
