Pig's digs: Bourgeois Pig in the East Village
How’s this for a come-on: a cocktail menu made strictly with beer, wine and champagne. That’s the pitch at Bourgeois Pig, which reopens at a bigger space across the street from its old haunt in the East Village. “We’d like to reinvent the wine bar and make it better,” says owner Ravi DeRossi, who's also behind the nearby Death and Co., a block away. “There are so many wine bars around, but they’re all just the same and kind of boring.” The extensive cocktail menu, designed by Philip Ward (also from D&C) will feature wines by the glass and about 50 cocktails, including champagne punches served in sterling-silver punch bowls, ladle and all. DeRossi has also expanded Bourgeois Pig’s popular fondue offerings, now with 10 cheese fondues and 10 sweet fondues ranging from Bailey’s with dark chocolate to dark chocolate with cayenne pepper to dulce de leche. It’s enough to make you wanna get piggy. 111 E. Seventh St. between First Ave. and Ave. A, 212-475-2246
Label
“People around my age, late 20s and early 30s, they're not feeling the new spaces that are out,” says nightlife vet Nick Valencia. “You know, the bullshit at the door and the bottle service.” To remedy this, he’s opened this chill lounge on the Lower East Side as “an alternative to someone who doesn’t wanna be out sweating with 300 people in a dark place. I wanted to keep it low-key.” The lounge’s name is short for “white label,” a reference to underground music tracks that had yet to be picked up by a major label. It’s a nod to the place’s music-centric edict—Valencia was a former manager at Cielo—with a focus on “disco-funk-soul-Latin-Afro-beat-new- jazz-deep-house,“ he says in one breath. The eclectic space, with its antler sconces, bookshelves and candles, has 14 speakers, and the entire ceiling is lined with a 2-inch acoustic sound blanket. For noshes, there are four kinds of Colombian-style empanadas (his father is Colombian), while a wide range of caipirinhas and caipiroscas mix things up with ingredients like strawberry, pineapple, grape, kiwi and even sake. 174 Rivington St. between Clinton and Attorney Sts., 212-228-9600
Matilda
Tex-Mex? Yes. Tusc-Mex? OK, we’re listening. That’s what you get when a husband-and-wife chef team (she’s Tuscan, he’s Mexican) mix the best of their respective culinary backgrounds at this East Village fusion spot. “I’m from Tuscany, and I don’t like overcooked meat,” says Maristella Innocenti, who met hubby Esteban Molina when they were both chefs at I Coppi. “I like my steak medium-rare. In Mexican tradition, medium-rare doesn’t exist!” she laughs. The result: intriguing dishes like taco alla Fiorentina, which come stuffed with—yes—medium-rare filet mignon, Grana Padano cheese and arugula; and homemade desserts like gelato made with like Mexican chocolate and jalapeno. The eclectic restaurant—bright pink walls, dark mahogany wood, chandeliers—is named after the couple’s other Tusc-Mex production: their 4-year-old daughter. 647 E. 11th St. at Ave. C, 212-777-3355
Cantina
Looks like the East Village is fast becoming a haven for Cuban refugees of the culinary variety (see: Café Cortadito, Bodeguita Cubana, Candela Candela). You can now add Cantina to the roster, a new cozy-cool restaurant from bar owner–cum–promoter Jason Swamy, with interiors from the same designer behind La Esquina (think living-room thrift, with mismatched chairs, bookshelves and old radios). Consulting chef Jason Neroni, who earlier this year was involved in an imbroglio with former employer Porchetta over a larceny charge, resurfaces with a pan-Latin menu filled with items like the PLT (a twist on the BLT, with pressed pork belly, roasted heirloom tomatoes and romaine lettuce) and the AKA sandwich (lamb tongue in membrillo and almond butter). Cheese plates come from Murray’s, while Il Laboratorio del Gelato provides dessert. 29 Avenue B between Second and Third Aves., 212-228-0599
