New NYC restaurants report
GETAWAYS • New York City
For your New York City travel planning, please enjoy FOUND NY’s report on the most intriguing restaurant openings of the first quarter:
For an instant hit: Penny, the upstairs sequel from the team behind East Village wine bar Claud, is less than a month old, but the plaudits are rolling in. Emails one FOUND correspondent: “Delightful experience, Parisian vibes. The oyster confit, Dover sole with bone marrow béarnaise, and bread + butter + anchovy, all excellent.” Another tells us: “Penny was FANTASTIC. I had 16/19 dishes on the menu and not a single miss. The brioche is insane — ordered it twice.” FOUND NY itself weighed in this week with a full report: “Penny is the seafood bar New York City has been missing.”
→ Penny (East Village) • 90 E 10th St.
For under-the-radar excellence: Sappe, a new Thai spot on 14th Street from the team behind another NYC Thai favorite, Soothr, and Theodora, a new Middle Eastern restaurant from the Miss Ada folks in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
→ Sappe (West Village) • 240 West 14th St.
→ Theodora (Fort Greene) • 7 Greene Ave.
For a delightful surprise: Sip and Guzzle, the new bi-level establishment in the heart of Greenwich Village that pairs Tokyo cocktail culture with outlandish menu concepts. Somehow, it all works.
→ Sip & Guzzle (Greenwich Village) • 29 Cornelia St • Walk-ins welcome.
For a tasting menu: At the high-end, the tasting menu counter Blanca tucked behind Roberta’s in Bushwick reopened; NYT critic Pete Wells just named it the second best restaurant in New York City. There’s also an crucial new Midtown omakase counter, Sushi Sho, as revealed in FOUND by way of Hawaii, but you’ll need to plan far in advance on this one, or get lucky off the waitlist — it’s booked out through May.
→ Blanca (Bushwick) • 261 Moore St.
→ Sushi Sho (Midtown East) • 3 East 42st St.
For the hot take: Of course, we can’t round the quarter out without mentioning Frog Club. On the heels of early correspondent reports, I very much enjoyed an evening at the bar with an old friend — a perfect use case for this West Village newcomer from Liz Johnson of Horses and its extremely festive room (above). It was great to get in just before the backlash; we’ll return during the coming backlash-to-the-backlash sometime in late Q2. –Lockhart Steele
→ Frog Club (West Village) • 86 Bedford St • Dinner Mon-Thurs • Email knockknock@frogclub.nyc for reservations.