El Fish Marisqueria, Seafood-Focused Mexican, Opens on the Upper West Side
Headliner
El Fish Marisqueria
Julian Medina and Louis Skibar, partners in the Toloache Restaurant Group, which ownsToloache, Old John’s and more, are adding this Mexican seafood restaurant to their collection. Last summer, Mr. Medina, the group’s head chef, spent time gathering ideas for the new restaurant in Ensenada, northern Baja California, known for fishing. The chefs de cuisine are Fidel Rodriguez and Juan Velazco. The menu features dishes like fideos (thin noodles) with lobster, clam chowder influenced by tortilla soup, baked clams with chorizo, ceviches, raw bar specialties including peel-and-eat shrimp, swordfish schnitzel, tostadas and tacos. Salmon brochettes with poblano peppers are also on the menu, served with a roasted peanut Kung Pao salsa. The salsa is not the only Asian touch: Yuzu and soy-ginger butter flavor other dishes. The well-upholstered dining room features a dining counter set with chairs, not stools. (Opens Thursday)
155 Amsterdam Avenue (67th Street), 212-874-2000, elfish67.com.
Opening
Polletto Chicken and Sangria
Fabio Casella, an owner of San Matteo, an Upper East Side pizzeria and restaurant, is taking a new approach with his latest spot, which specializes in rotisserie chicken spun over wood fires and sold by the half ($15) or whole ($28). The rest of his menu is devoted to sides, including mac and cheese, roasted potatoes, creamed corn, creamed spinach, a couple of salads and chicken soup. He also offers a fried hot dog with fries. The setting, framed in dark wood with exposed brick, has 30 seats and waiter service. (Wednesday)
1631 Second Avenue (85th Street), 646-449-0889, polettochickensangria.com.
Celebrate Istanbul
For February and March, Salon de Ning at the Peninsula New York will offer a Turkish menu and cocktails to celebrate the opening of the Peninsula Istanbul on Feb. 14. Baba ganoush, smoked hummus, dolmas and baklava are among the dishes, served with drinks like the Bosphorus with bourbon, spiced pear liqueur, Earl Grey syrup and cassis; and a Turkish coffee martini with Grey Goose, Kahlua and Turkish coffee.
500 Fifth Avenue (55th Street), 212-956-2888, peninsula.com/newyork.
Café Mish Mosh
This Lebanese spot — in the gaming venue OS NYC, inside the Hotel 50 Bowery — is owned by Allen Dabagh, the chef-owner of Boutros in Brooklyn, and Samer Asfahani, the chief executive of OS NYC, both of Lebanese heritage. Some liberties are taken with traditional Lebanese fare, like the pork shawarma egg rolls, a nod to the restaurant’s location in Chinatown. Food, mostly mezze, kebabs and sandwiches, can be served family-style. For now, the 45-seat cafe operates on a three-month pop-up basis, though it may become more permanent.
OS NYC, Hotel 50 Bowery, 50 Bowery (Canal Street), 212-600-4325, cafemishmosh.com.
Le Select
The chef Daniel Rose, a Chicago native who first made his name in Paris with Spring and is best known in New York for Le Coucou, has returned home. With the Boka Restaurant Group, a significant player on the Chicago restaurant scene with a toehold in New York (it collaborated on Laser Wolf in Brooklyn), he has opened this classic French brasserie in the River North area. The bright, spacious restaurant designed by AvroKO has a vintage French look combined with sleek industrial elements. A classic menu includes Alsatian items like choucroute and tourte Alsacienne. (Alsace is where the brasserie came to be in France.) A few weeks ago, Mr. Rose and the Boka group also opened Café Basque, a tribute to another region of France, in the Hoxton hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
Le Select, 504 North Wells Street (West Illinois Street), River North, Chicago, leselectchicago.com; Café Basque, Hoxton Downtown Los Angeles, 1060 South Broadway (West 11th Street), cafebasque.com; bokagrp.com.
Looking Ahead
Casa Lever
This art-filled restaurant, on the ground floor of the landmark Lever House office tower on Park Avenue, has closed for renovations, coinciding with a $100 million face-lift for the building. (Lever House was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1952, shocking Park Avenue with a flash of modernism.) A reopening for the restaurant, which has just signed a long lease with Brookfield Properties and WatermanClark LLC, is planned for early summer, with enhanced outdoor dining areas. An updated menu will combine the Milanese dishes for which Casa Lever, run by SA Hospitality Group (noted for its Sant Ambroeus restaurants and cafes), is known, along with some new elements.
390 Park Avenue (53rd Street), casalever.com.
COTE Korean Steakhouse
An immense three-story restaurant from Simon Kim and his Gracious Hospitality Management, the owners of Cote in the Flatiron district, will be among the amenities at 550 Madison, the neo-Classical skyscraper designed by Philip Johnson familiarly known as the Chippendale building. The restaurant will be multifaceted and occupy 15,000 square feet in the building. Details on the theme, the name and the opening date have yet to be revealed.
550 Madison Avenue (55th Street).
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