Loggia
Any resourceful New York restaurateur can offer his nature-loving customers an outdoor-dining option, no matter how cramped the space or how lacking anything remotely classifiable as nature: Simply evict any sidewalk loiterers, plop down a wobbly table or two, open a Cinzano umbrella, and break out the sangria. Luckily, the suave Italian restaurant Moda at the Flatotel had a lot more to work with. The restaurant's new 70-seat outdoor annex, Loggia, stretches across the entire breezeway space from 52nd to 53rd Street. Planters holding mini herb gardens of basil, thyme, and tarragon set the mood for chef Bill Seleno's new seasonal, southern-Italian menu, which includes nibbles like asparagus with crab and Parmigiano-Reggiano, pizzette, panini, and big plates like grilled whole red mullet with salsa verde.
135 West 52nd Street
212-887-9870
· Cuisine: Italian

Vida
Now that Nuevo Latino has become somewhat old hat, chef Rafael Palomino has transformed Sonora, his midtown bastion of Latin-American cooking, into what he calls New York's first fount of Nuevo Mexicano: Mexican cuisine infused with bistro flair. On the menu, that translates into crab and vegetables au gratin, epazote-and-yuca-crusted salmon with cuitlacoche crêpes, and octopus seviche in a coconut.
222 E. 39th Street
212-297-0280
· Cuisine: Nuevo Mexican