headliner
Jaffa Cocktail + Raw Bar
The Hoxton Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has once again expanded dining options. Joining Laser Wolf, a rooftop destination for skewered food sizzling over charcoal, and K’Far, the lobby restaurant, is this bright and airy cocktail and crudité bar inspired by Jaffa, the Israeli port city adjacent to Tel Aviv known for its citrus. The new venue is indoors and outdoors, on a second-story terrace, with a dedicated street entrance. Assorted raw and cooked seafood options include yellowtail pastrami with grilled cucumber; shakshuka octopus; scallops with peppers and citrus salt; raw oysters, with passion fruit and shug mignonette, and in the wood oven, with urfa chile butter. Citrus flavors inform the cocktails. Like the other restaurants at the hotel, it’s the work of CookNSolo, the Philadelphia-based company owned by Israeli native Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, and, at the Hoxton, in partnership with Chicago’s Boka Restaurant Group. Sam Levenfeld from the Boka Group is the chef de cuisine. (Opens on Thursday)
The Hoxton Williamsburg, 97 Wythe Avenue (North Ninth Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-215-7150, jaffabrooklyn.com.
Opening
twenty three grand
This restaurant, in the ModernHaus SoHo hotel, occupies a new, lushly planted indoor-outdoor area; previously it was Veranda. Chef Ashley Rath of Saint Theo’s and Gramercy Tavern is in charge of the kitchen. Her menu is inspired by the Mediterranean and beyond. Assorted carpaccios, zucchini tower with tzatziki sauce, whole wheat pizzettes, penne alla vodka, cauliflower steak, pastrami-spiced roasted salmon and veal milanese for two are some of the highlights.
ModernHaus SoHo Hotel, 23 Grand Street (Avenue of the Americas), 212-201-9117, twentythreegrand.com.
F8 Cafe
This pop-up is a placeholder for Emmeline Zhao, who co-owns the acclaimed Silver Apricot next door and is the managing partner of both restaurants. Later this year, she plans to open Figure Eight, a Chinese-American restaurant with some Lowcountry influences, but in the meantime, the space will serve dishes by other chefs to takeout. Prepared foods include Christine Lau’s soy butter noodles, Eric Huang’s fried chicken, James Yang’s jian bing, and Calvin Hwang’s HK-style minced egg and cheese. The cafe will be in operation for at least a month. (Wednesday)
18 Cornelia Street (Bleecker Street), no phone number or website.
Palermo Argentinian Bistro
This addition to Restaurant Row is named after the Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It’s from Orhan Cakir, owner of Pierre Loti, and executive chef Carlos Barroz, who is from Argentina and pays tribute to him with empanadas, plus chimichurri and salsa criolla served with roast beef and mixed grill for two. (Wednesday)
373 West 46th Street, 212-265-2060, palermonyc.com.
