Cucina Alba Opens, Serving Italian at the Edge of the High Line
Headliner
Cucina Alba
The chef Adam Leonti is bringing his style of Italian cuisine to the edge of the High Line. His new restaurant opens in Lantern House, a residential building with bay windows by Thomas Heatherwick, best known for the Vessel, the sculptural centerpiece of Hudson Yards. In partnership with the restaurateurs Cobi Levy and Will Makris’s Prince Street Hospitality, Mr. Leonti will touch down in various parts of Italy, from Sicily to the north, with what he says will be familiar fare. He calls it “vacation Italian,” the dishes Americans enjoy when visiting Italy, like focaccia baked in a Roman oven. The restaurant’s name means dawn in Italian, but is also that of a premier white truffle town in northern Italy. Mr. Leonti plans to keep the pastas limited to four, seasonal and rotating with choices like smoked lemon cacio e pepe and pici alla nerano. As is his wont, the emphasis will be on bread. “I’ve installed the most incredible bread ovens to bake our breads and pastries,” he said. He’s buying wheat from Pennsylvania and milling it in-house. Dinner will start with bread and assorted butters, including one with black truffles. The wine list will emphasize Italy. The high-ceilinged dining room, done in soft tones of coral and yellow, is light and airy with an open kitchen, terrazzo floors and seating for 90 inside with a spacious terrace outdoors. (Opens Aug. 26)
515 West 18th Street, 212-390-9595, cucinaalba.com.
Opening
Jalao NYC
The newly opened Radio Hotel in Washington Heights, a boutique property near the access to the George Washington Bridge, includes this Dominican restaurant created in collaboration with the chef and restaurateur Richard Sandoval. It’s a branch of a restaurant in Ciudad Colonial in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The name is that of a Dominican coconut and honey candy, which, of course, will be served, with rum raisin ice cream, as a finale after a meal that taps into many Latin American influences but emphasizes Dominican cuisine with tostones, sancocho and La Bandera Dominicana with rice, beans and meat. Carnival masks adorn the space furnished with pieces made in the Dominican Republic. The restaurant also has a courtyard where music and dancing are part of the scene. (Thursday)
Radio Hotel, 2420 Amsterdam Avenue (West 181st Street), jalaonyc.com.
Chef Guo
Guo (pronounced “goo”) Wenjun started his career cooking elaborate imperial Chinese fare at the side of master chefs when he was 14. Now, 55, he’s still at it, with a twist. His specialty combines elaborate imperial style with Western influences in dishes that often require hours or even days to prepare. Notable on the 19-course tasting menu ($518), with 15 savory dishes, three tea courses and dessert, are chicken and beef soup with black truffles; tofu with caviar; noodles with black bean sauce, from a Qing dynasty recipe; braised morels with double mushrooms; mustard greens with black rice and lobster tails; fried foie gras au jus; and hundred happiness and eight treasures in a bean curd pouch served in a Thai rosewood jewelry box. Pairings of seven wines are $198, but there is also an à la carte wine list. As befits food like this, the table appointments are luxurious — think serving cloches traced with 24-karat gold — and the dining room, seating 10 with reservations at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., offers traditional accents.
135 East 50th Street, 212-866-9888, chefguo.com.
Rang NYC
This Indian restaurant from Abishek Sharma adds to Long Island City’s dining scene. Featured dishes are murgh curry with chicken and potatoes, tandoori mustard chicken, paneer bao bun with a Sichuan sauce, and six breads.
11-03 44th Avenue (11th Street), Long Island City, Queens, 718-406-9338, rangnyc.com.
Hakata TonTon
The West Village original known for more than a decade’s worth of hot pots closed at the beginning of the pandemic. Now Hand Hospitality (Atoboy and more), is reopening a physical location in Midtown Manhattan in a minimalist space with industrial elements. The chef Koji Hagihara will still be in charge, creating the hot pots and adding small izakaya-style plates of black pepper chicken wings, pickled tomatoes, and yellowtail with scallions and seaweed in sesame sauce. Some of the drinks are from Fukuoka Province in Southern Japan, where the city of Hakata is. (Thursday)
35 West 35th Street, 917-261-6536, hakatatonton.net.
Dawn’s ’Til Dusk
The founders of Brooklyn’s One Girl Cookies, Dawn Casale and Dave Crofton, have turned their airy Dumbo location into this all-day spot for breakfast items like crumb cake and egg sandwiches; lunch with bowls, salads and sandwiches like smoked trout with lettuce and tomato that continue into the evening, along with snacks, sweets like black-and-white cookies, and wine and beer. They’ve added a mural by the artist Misha Tyutyunik, a Ukrainian living in New York. (Wednesday)
33 Main Street (Water Street), Dumbo, Brooklyn, 212-675-4996.
Looking Ahead
425 Park Avenue
The chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten will run the restaurant designed by Sir Norman Foster in this new office tower. Mr. Vongerichten’s involvement was suggested but not confirmed when the chef and restaurateur Daniel Humm withdrew from the project in April over his plans for a plant-based menu. Details about the as-yet unnamed two-level restaurant, with its own street entrance, a bar on the ground floor and a formal dining room with an open but glassed-in kitchen, have not been revealed. Like the building itself, owned by L&L Holding and also designed by Sir Norman, it will feature sustainability. Mr. Vongerichten will also handle the dining for the Diagrid Club, a wellness center with other amenities near the top of the building. The opening is expected late next year.
425 Park Avenue (56th Street).
Chefs on the Move
Kwame Onwuachi
Mr. Onwuachi will conceive of and run an as-yet unnamed restaurant on the ground floor of the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, which reopens this fall. The chef,a native New Yorker, had restaurants in Washington, D.C., and is based in Los Angeles. He has relocated to New York, where he said he recalls, as a child, attending performances at Lincoln Center with his mother. “Coming back to New York is a dream,” he said. The restaurant, with its own plaza entrance, will be open to the public a little later than David Geffen Hall, and will serve a menu that celebrates New York with Afro-Caribbean flavors. Bodega-style chopped cheese buns made with beef, Taleggio cheese and truffles, Egusi soup dumplings and braised oxtails are some of the dishes he’s considering. He also said he hoped the restaurant would help increase diversity in the whole complex.
Dominique Ansel and Nami Nori
Mr. Ansel’s latest pop-up collaboration, from Friday through Sunday will be with the temaki restaurant Nami Nori. Crisp tuiles filled with ice cream, fruit, mochi and other touches that mimic the style will be sold from 8 a.m. daily, $24 for three flavors.
Dominique Ansel Workshop, 17 East 27th Street, dominiqueanselworkshop.com.
Michelin Guide California
Leading up to the publication of its restaurant guides, Michelin has been announcing the restaurants that will be added to the lineup. For California, to be published this fall, it revealed 18: All Day Baby, Antico Nuovo, Chiang Rai, Fia Steak, Flavors From Afar, Girl & the Goat LA, Horses, Ipoh Kopitiam, Lalibela, Lumière, Manzke, Mes Amis, Moo’s Craft Barbecue, RYLA, Shunji, Sushi Nikkei, Sushi Takeda, and Lulu at the Hammer Museum, run by David Tanis, a columnist for The New York Times Food section, with Alice Waters as a consultant.
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