Sugar Hill Bistro
Before the Sugar Hill Bistro opened for "previews" on August 21, the 1880s Victorian townhouse had been many things: a home, a doctor's office, a drug-treatment center, a liquor store. But the two local couples who bought the building as a real-estate investment opted instead to convert it into a full-fledged cultural and culinary attraction, the most exciting addition to the Harlem restaurant scene since Hillary's husband. Their reasons, in part, were selfish: "When we wanted to celebrate," says James Hunter, a mechanical systems specialist, "we were always going downtown." That was inconvenient, especially for people with young children and busy careers. Hunter's wife, Dineo Khabele, is an oncologist who went to school with Michael Jones, a plastic surgeon married to UPN newscaster Cathleen Trigg. Five years ago, the foursome began investing in real estate, buying up and restoring Sugar Hill brownstones. At the Sugar Hill Bistro, mantelpieces, crown moldings, and ceiling friezes adorn the second-story dining room, which also showcases the mixed-media portraits of Leslie Powell, one of the African-American artists exhibited throughout the building (the third floor is soon to become a gallery, and the top floor a business center). Last month, Wynton Marsalis dropped by to christen the ground-floor Renaissance Bar & Jazz Lounge with an impromptu set, but these days the spotlight is squarely on chef Adam D. Elliott, an Atlanta caterer who's put together a menu that, save for a blackened salmon and gospel brunch, gutsily ducks soul-food stereotypes. There's chicken-and-spinach spring rolls, Moroccan-spiced shrimp cocktail, Asian pan-seared scallops. And for the next three weeks, there's also a 20 percent food discount -- almost as much an incentive to book a table as the prospect of the former First Saxophonist swinging by. -- ROBIN RAISFELD
458 West 145th Street
212-491-5505
· Cuisine: Eclectic