Django
The dust has yet to settle at Django,
the 250-seat contemporary French restaurant named for
the guitarist Django Reinhardt and dreamed up by the globetrotting
crew who brought us Calle
Ocho, Rain, and Union
Pacific. But any pioneering diners willing to endure
last-minute construction disruptions not only get first
crack at chef Gwenaël Le Pape's lobster salad with rhubarb
and watercress; they get 20 percent off. Multitasking
designer David Rockwell has adorned the bi-level space
with tapestry carpets, strands of beads, a Murano-glass
chandelier, and a 30-foot antique mirror, all to create
the illusion of dining in southwest France instead of
an impersonal midtown skyscraper lobby.
480 Lexington
Avenue, at 46th Street
212-871-6600
· Cuisine: French |
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 United
Noodles
After building a slew of sleek, streamlined
Thai restaurants, bi-coastal designer Kit Thahong, the
man responsible for the molded-plastic, raw-concrete
aesthetic of Spice and SEA, decided to open an ultramodern
place of his own. At United Noodles, he packs
a surfeit of style and sixteen vintage Eames chairs
into a white-walled East Village storefront, where chef
Paul Chantharavirooj riffs on the Asian-noodle theme
with "U.N.-style" chicken linguini, sashimi with cold
soba, and the French and Japanese influences he picked
up cooking at Patina, L'Orangerie, and Union
Pacific. But even with a résumé like that, it doesn't
hurt to have connections to land an executive-chef gig,
and Chantharavirooj came highly recommended by a former
client of Thahong's. "He built my mother's restaurant
in L.A.," says the chef.
349 East 12th
Street
212-614-0155
· Cuisine: Pan-Asian
|
 Noche
For years, David Copperfield threatened
to open an illusionist theme restaurant in Times Square.
He must be good: It vanished before it ever appeared.
But the original team recruited for what was to be Magic
Underground -- operator David Emil and architect David
Rockwell -- pulled off the neat trick of transforming
the 18,000-square-foot raw space into Noche, a
Latin-themed nightclub and restaurant opening June 6 and
inspired by the popular weekly Latin night at Emil's late,
lamented Windows on the World. Rockwell's whimsical evocation
of a pre-Castro club incorporates acres of mosaic tile,
wood slats climbing 70-foot walls, stained-glass panels,
a domed ceiling that changes color, and roving mojito
carts. And chef Ramiro Jimenez, late of Chicama,
has up his sleeve a Pan-Latino panoply of tamales, enchiladas,
seviches, and platters of roast suckling pig and Brazilian
barbecued chicken.
1604 Broadway,
at 49th Street
212-541-7070
· Cuisine: Pan-Latino
Related story: David Emil -- After Windows on the World
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 Hope
& Anchor
Dianna Munz gained a loyal following
at Paninoteca on Smith Street for her inventive yet
authentic light fare and her bar decorated with twenties
photos of nudes. Now, having traded naughty girls for
doughboys and tattoo imagery, she and her husband, Kenneth
(a Jean-Georges Vongerichten deputy), have joined with
partner Gary Rego in Hope & Anchor. Why the name?
"Because it's the flag of Rhode Island, Gary's home
state." It also befits the nautical heritage and urban
renaissance of Red Hook: "This is a neighborhood place
catering to neighborhood people," Munz says, meaning
classic diner fare, a full bar, and breakfast anytime.
But cauliflower ravioli with capers or cod in tomato
with chickpeas and chorizo point up a continuing commitment
to something more.
347 Van Brunt
Street, Brooklyn
718-237-0276
· Cuisine: Diner
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Openings Archive
Week
of May 20
The Basil, Loggia, Bot, Vida
Week
of May 20
Patagonia West, Café Lebowitz, Unity
Week
of May 13
Chocolate Bar, teany, Bar Veloce, THAT
Bar
and
more ...
Photos: From top to botto- Carina Salvi; Kenneth
Chen; Bruce Katz (2)
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