Alain Ducasse's new wine salon, Adour, checks in to the St. Regis
Herbivores will find much to love in Chinatown at Broadway East, which bills itself as the city’s first locavore, flexitarian restaurant. Originally the brainchild of Peter Berley, who recently left the venture in the wake of some ill-advised comments about vegetarians he made to Time Out, Broadway East should be a fascinating test of both environmentally sound principles and a cuisine that seeks to please both vegetarians and the meat eaters who love them.
In the Meatpacking District, Marcus Samuelsson will go back to his Ethiopian roots with Merkato 55. The restaurant, which was supposed to open in October, is the companion to Samuelsson’s African cookbook, “The Soul of a New Cuisine,” and will undoubtedly tempt fans of both the book and the chef’s work at Aquavit.
Also highly anticipated among the city’s wandering gourmands is Bar Boulud, Daniel Boulud’s Lincoln Center–area wine bar. Expect a New French menu, homemade artisanal charcuterie and a ton of Burgundy to wash it all down.
Boulud isn’t the only celebrated French chef to turn his attentions to wine: Alain Ducasse is set to open Adour at the St. Regis in late January. David Rockwell contributed the temperature-controlled armoirs and 50 private wine lockers; Ducasse’s legion of followers will undoubtedly contribute long waits for a table at the grape-centric restaurant.
Paul Liebrandt has so far been mum on any and all details pertaining to his new restaurant (except to say that it won’t be Chinese), but whatever the prodigiously talented former Gilt chef cooks up, we—and most of the city—will be queuing up to eat it.
Barbecue was all the caloric rage in 2007, and Anita Lo is set to give it an Asian-American twist at Q, her West Village restaurant. Expect sweet and sticky grilled “comfort food,” a raw bar and Asian-themed cocktails to satisfy the stomach and lift the spirits.
Spirits are high on the menu at Zeppelin, the latest venture from celebrated mixologists jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric, who last raised the bar for quality cocktails—not to mention blood-alcohol levels—at Employees Only. At the forties-themed Zeppelin, which will open in Greenwich Village, food will also get its due courtesy of former Chanterelle and Butter veteran Keith Harry.
On the Upper West Side, the neighborhood’s beloved Tom Valenti will turn a former Fishs Eddy into West Branch, a casual brasserie that Valenti says will open sometime in the spring.
Lastly, if the rumors are true, Brooklynites whose idea of a good meal involves preparing it at home will have their prayers answered when Trader Joe’s opens at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. We can’t say we’re eager to join the inevitable lines that will accompany its opening, but as a spectator sport, we can’t imagine a better game in town.
(Artist's rendering courtesy of Luis Blanc and Paul Maguire for the Rockwell Group)
