 Washington
Park
Despite a recent stumble or two --
the short-lived Colina at ABC
Carpet & Home, his pre-opening defection from Berkeley
Bar and Grill -- Jonathan Waxman hasn't exhausted the
devotion of his fans. Far from it: The memory of his mid-eighties
chicken and French fries at Jams should be enough to keep
the dining room of his new Washington Park booked
for weeks. A veteran of Chez Panisse and an opening chef
at Michael's in Santa Monica, Waxman belongs to the pantheon
of those who revolutionized American cooking. And after
more than a decade of consulting, he's finally settled
down in a kitchen of his own, where, starting April 2,
he'll reprise signatures like red-pepper pancakes with
wild smoked salmon and grilled pork tenderloin marinated
in brown-sugar brine. (And, yes, chicken.) His fritto
misto "River Cafe" -- a daily changing, Ligurian-style
fish fry -- is an homage to the London restaurant of that
name, not the Brooklyn one. With a $45 three-course prix
fixe menu, an $85 five-course wine-pairing menu, and whimsical
à la carte selections like foie gras tacos and caviar-laced
Belon stews, this time around might just be a walk in
the Park. —
ROBIN RAISFELD
24 Fifth Avenue
212-529-4400
· Cuisine: Eclectic
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Wild Lily Tea Room
For almost four years, West Chelsea
gallery-goers have taken post-abstraction refuge at the
serene Wild Lily Tea Room, an oasis of oolongs
and Darjeelings. Now owner Ines Sun and architect David
Hu have collaborated once again, in an equally remote
part of town. But at Wild Lily Tea Market, a prototype
for what Sun hopes will be a chain of tearooms, she offers
Alphabet City sippers a less expensive selection of senchas,
lapsang souchongs, and caffeine-free herbal tisanes, all
quirkily described on the menu. To nibble, there are sweet
and savory snacks like Chinese steamed buns and Japanese
wheat cakes. And besides selling leaves by the ounce,
Sun has accumulated a line of stylish products made both
for tea (like the travel kit, pictured above) and from
it, like green-tea soap, business cards, and odor-fighting
insoles for your shoes.
545 East 12th
Street
212-598-9097
· Cuisine: Tea
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 Kitchenette
Uptown
Years before comfort food was such a hot-button
issue among feisty critics (is macaroni and cheese dumb-guy
food or America's greatest culinary achievement?), Kitchenette
was quietly turning out delicious outsize portions of the stuff
to a grateful TriBeCa neighborhood. With the opening of a new
upper Amsterdam Avenue branch, Kitchenette Uptown, score
one for the comfort-food clique. The much roomier 2,200-square-foot
space next door to Max SoHa
might be a reason for the owners to reconsider the "ette" part
of the name. But the nearly identical menu and the country-kitchen
décor are as small-town quaint as ever. There are peach pancakes,
salmon-croquette sandwiches, blue-plate specials, an expanded
dinner menu, homemade pie, and, as the sign above the café-side
counter says, breakfast, served all day.
1272 Amsterdam Avenue,
near 123rd Street
212-531-7600
· Cuisine: Comfort food
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 Industry
(food)
What do you get when you mix chefs who worked
for Jean-Louis Palladin and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, bartenders
and managers from Bungalow
8 and BondSt, and
a rustic design that borrows the tree motif from the Park?
Apparently, as of April 3, you get Industry (food), a
new restaurant that adopts the same parenthetical affectation
employed by (The Mercer) Kitchen,
where its co-owners met. They've revamped the old Coup space
with enough wood to rankle an Earth First!-er: chestnut logs,
pine barnwood, and a pair of birch trees growing through the
atrium's copper-topped bar. Chef Marco Morillo's French-American
menu pays tribute to Palladin, his late mentor, in dishes like
cast-iron-grilled skate wing, pea soup with cockles, and braised
Kentucky short ribs with bone-marrow flan (entrées, $13 to $19).
509 East 6th Street
212-777-5920
· Cuisine: French-American
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 Cinnabar
The late Tapika's urban cowboys have long
since saddled up and ridden off into the sunset, and in their
place comes Cinnabar, a high-style Asian restaurant
that falls somewhere between Shun Lee Palace and Ruby
Foo's on the culinary-concept map. To go with the celadon-canvas-covered
chairs, the cinnamon walls and floor, and the wispy floral
displays is a general manager from Shun Lee, as well as chef
Vincent Cheng, who's cooked in Hong Kong and L.A. He's making
it hard for indecisive diners, with a 150-item menu of Cantonese,
Hunan, and Sichuan dishes like giant steamed oysters with
XO sauce, hot-and-sour Napa cabbage, Hong Kong-style Dungeness
crab with crispy garlic and shallots, and Peking duck for
two.
235 West 56th Street
212-399-1100
· Cuisine: Chinese
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Chateau
Remember Moomba? The nightlife impresarios
who've taken over Leo's lamented haunt undoubtedly hope that
they've also inherited some of its celebrity appeal, which must
account for the VIP bathroom. To fuel the frenzy, there's tapas,
and to go with the chalet theme, custom-made tables with built-in
fondue pots.
133 Seventh Avenue
So.
212-337-0777
· Cuisine: Tapas
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Osteria del Sole
On what might be one of the West Village's
prettiest corners, the late EQ has quietly morphed into this
lively trattoria, with a moderately priced menu of traditional
Italian fare and a boisterous Italian clientele that laps
it up. Until the liquor license arrives, the busboys will
happily fetch a bottle for you from the local liquor store
(as long as you pay up front).
267 W. 4th Street
212-620-6840
· Cuisine: Italian
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Openings Archive
Week
of March 18
Fiamma, Blue Smoke, Rouge, Tournesol
Week
of March 11
Elmo, Rochjin Asian Noodle, Soy, Nong, Si Si
Week
of March 4
Bonita, Wondee Siam II, Barocco Hots
and
more ...
Photos: From top to bottom- Kenneth Chen (2), Patrik Rytikangas
(2), Carina Salvi,
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