Marea
Photo: Daniel Krieger
- Making use of its newly renovated section, the Museum of the City of New York is hosting an outdoor "speakeasy" every Wednesday until August 26. [NYT]
- Chef Michael White's Marea may be the "most extravagant New York restaurant to open so far this year," and Jay Cheshes dishes out much praise for the menu. [TONY]
- Equally impressed with Marea is Alan Richman, who wonders if Frank Bruni "might like it enough to award four stars," making it the first Italian eatery to receive The New York Times' highest rating. [GQ]
- It's four stars for Marea from Ryan Sutton, whose review raves White's food is "edible proof you’re at one of Manhattan’s best restaurants." [Bloomberg]
- The space that housed Limelight and later Avalon will become a retail store. [NYP]
- A Tuesday-night community board meeting revealed that Steve Hanson wants to serve light American dishes in the space formerly occupied by the Hog Pit; the owners of Butter are looking to take over the Plumm's old space; and Jimmy Bradley has plans for a restaurant inside an Elizabeth Street hotel. [NYMag]
- Another restaurant is headed to the Bowery: Curbed reports that Koi, with outposts in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and the Bryant Park Hotel, is proposing to replace the now-closed Salvation Army shelter. [Curbed]
- Ark Restaurants and the Bryant Park Corporation are looking to open a new lounge in the Midtown park. [Crain's]
- Less than two years old, Greenwich Village eatery Smith's has closed and will become a new outpost for the Mermaid Inn in September. [Eater]
- The Garden of Ono will close and reopen under the ownership of Mike Satsky and Brian Gefter; and its former owner, Jeffrey Chodorow, denies the rumor that he might collaborate on another restaurant with chef Rocco DiSpirito. [NYMag]
- For Frank Bruni, Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar is a "big-city big-game reserve for the lions, gazelles, and jackals of the urban veldt," where the "fame-focused, power-obsessed sect of Manhattan society" dines on a menu now better under Larry Forgione's direction. [NYT]
- Gael Greene seems to prefer Aureole's "cozy little townhouse" to its new "lofty automobile showroom space," but the critic is taken by Christopher Lee's "intense play of flavors." [Insatiable Critic]
- In place of a formal review, Steve Cuozzo investigates the battle between Michael Chow and Philippe Chow and the food at their respective restaurants. [NYP]
- Meanwhile, his colleague Carla Spartos highlights the new hot spots, who goes, and where to sit. [NYP]
