A funny thing happened when I was in Japan. Naturally, I ate a lot of sushi—but the best meals weren’t at the grand, expensive temples of omakase. They were at tiny sushi-yas: casual, affordable counter stalls tucked into fish markets.

Which got me thinking about sushi in New York City, and how crazy expensive it is and whether it’s all worth it — especially after reading Ligaya Mishan’s recent article in the Times in which she argued that the “co-opting of sushi by finance bros, favoring optimization and spectacle over craft, in an eerie Benihana-fication of the American sushi-ya” mostly makes us bored and broke.

Rather than be bored and broke, I’ve got something better: a list of spots across the city offering thoughtful, high-quality omakase at a fraction of the price of heavy hitters like Sushi Sho ($450), Sushi Noz ($550), and Yoshino ($500).

My top five are Luya Omakase & Wine Bar in Park Slope; Sendo, Koete Omakase, and Iki Sekai in Manhattan, and Sushi Koju in Downtown Brooklyn. Runners-up include U Omakase, Mido Sushi, Ki Sushi, and Sushi Lin. Do you have a favorite affordable and fabulous spot for us? Drop it in the comments.

Also, a note. I wrote a novel, as some of you know, and I was accepted to a writer’s residency upstate, to workshop, revise and refine it. Which means The Strong Buzz is on vacation for the next two weeks so I can try to focus on getting it pub-ready. See you at the end of July!

Luya Omakase & Wine Bar (Park Slope)
15 courses, $89

I don't want to say one of these restaurants is better than the next – because, truly, each of the omakase menus I’ve included here are thrilling and memorable. But I will say this. None of the restaurants mentioned here offers as impressive and deep a wine program as Luya Omakase & Wine Bar in Park Slope. This under the radar gem is the only omakase restaurant I visited with a brilliant natural wine-forward program, a list curated by Beverage Director Irvan Xu Lin.

Lin cut his teeth at Pinch Chinese under sommelier Miguel de Leon (Michelin Guide’s Best Sommelier in NYC), where he developed a passion for low-intervention wines and sustainable viticulture. At Luya, which he opened with chef Wei Chang, he’s built a list of small-production, under-the-radar bottles alongside carefully chosen sake and spirits.

I did the wine pairing with the omakase and had wine after wine that I not only loved but had never heard of; I found myself compiling a list of new favorite varietals and producers: Maria Amorós for her Cava Brut; a bright vibrant Japanese wine called Katsunuma ‘Arugano Vento’ from Koshu grapes grown in the Yamanashi prefecture; and a gorgeous white called Les Equilibristes ’Borboyon’, from the Savoie region. He poured a Stilianou ‘Great Mother’ from Crete; and a Portuguese Ciclo ‘Vinho Branco’ and finally a sparkling Cha Pet Nat from FARMentation, a vineyard in Shaanxi China that cold ferments wine with Jasmine tea leaves. It’s no wonder his list was a finalist for “Best Newcomer Wine List of the Year” and “Sustainable Wine List of the Year” at the 2026 Star Wine List Awards.

You don’t have to do an omakase meal to try the wines, but you might as well because of course the food is also exquisite. Chef Wei Cheng is a master sushi chef with over a decade of experience at sushi temples including Sushi Noz. I found the entire experience at Luya to be fantastic – unforgettable from start to finish, three appetizers, 10 pieces, and one hand roll later.

The pieces came one after another, a steady rain of surprises: a madai with pickled plum sauce, a yellowtail with lemon juice and a haystack of crispy leeks, branzino with ponzu topped with shavings of frozen foie gras, amber jack with a chiffonade of shishito pepper, a sablefish drapped in spicy crunchy garlic chili oil, a seven-day aged bluefin tuna from Spain adorned with truffles, and a final piece of wagyu A5 crowned with a lush briny pillow of sea urchin.

Luya is like a scratch off lotto ticket that pays you $1 million, tax free. It’s just the best surprise ever.

Luya Omakase & Wine Bar (Park Slope)
219 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215
(929) 773-9761

Sendo
12 courses, $48

Perhaps you’ve heard of Sendo and wondered, is it possible to do a decent omakase for $48? I’m here to tell you: it is. Sendo channels Edo-era sushi culture with remarkable precision—and unbelievable value. Helmed by 30-year omakase veteran Tsuyoshi Takahashi (formerly of Sushi Noz), the restaurant offers a minimalist menu of nigiri, hand rolls, and kaisendon, with omakase sets ranging from $19 to $48.

The top-tier Hokkaido set ($48) is almost absurdly generous: 10 pieces of nigiri (golden eye, sea bream, toro, scallops), plus two hand rolls and a kaisendon loaded with toro, seabass, ikura, shrimp, and uni over seasoned rice. It feels vaguely like theft.

The ingredients are serious—premium fish from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market, award-winning rice from Hokkaido, house-made sauces—and the careful execution reflects it. The only trade-off? Speed. This is a brisk, efficient experience; you’ll likely be in and out within an hour. Also note: the West 8th Street location does not yet have a liquor license.

Sendo
876 6th Ave 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001
43 W 8th St 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011 *BYOB
(646) 400-1647

Iki Sekai Omakase (Upper East Side)
14 courses, $85

Iki Sekai opened in late April, bringing a terrific and spirited Japanese sushi-ya to the Upper East Side. It’s led by a duo of chefs with impressive pedigrees; chef Gary Ke, formerly of Kinjo, and chef Po Shing Ng, formerly of Ito. Together, they showcase fish sourced across Japan: a piece of masunosuke (king salmon) pops with cherry tomato and tosazu, the luxurious Japanese seasoned vinegar; the flavor of kanpachi (amberjack) is deepened with a pinch of truffled maitake; madai, the buttery Japanese red sea bream, comes with flavors that crack like lightening — umeboshi and shiso; and a prized aged Aburi toro from Spain is painted only with aged shoyu, because it needs nothing more.

The omakase here shows off the chefs’ quiet confidence—nothing feels showy, just deeply considered. Even the rice gets meticulous attention: washed, soaked with kombu dashi, cooked and rested to achieve that perfect seasoned base.

It’s BYOB, so bring a bottle of sake or a nice mineral-forward white. And you’ll love the soundtrack—chef Po curates a nostalgic hip-hop playlist that adds just the right buzz.

Iki Sekai Omakase
1203 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10065
(646) 653-5226

Koete Omakase (Midtown)
15 courses, $118

We had dinner at Koete Omakase before seeing Death of a Salesman a few weeks ago, and it will now be my go-to pre-theater restaurant. At $118 for 15 courses in 90 minutes, it’s a standout value.

Head Chef Jason Lin is a 28-year veteran of omakase and his philosophy is right there in the restaurant’s name, which means “to go beyond.” And go beyond, he does. Of course that’s the thing with omakase, a chef-driven journey of tastes and a progression of flavors and fish from mild to mad, and Jason is a charming and gifted MC, a charming conductor, so you’ll get a little theater before the theater.

His menu is a rapid fire flood of flavors and fish — pristine seafood flown in from Japan: botan ebi, Hokkaido uni, shima aji, and A5 Miyazaki wagyu. The tuna progression alone is worth the visit: akami, then chu-toro with truffle, finishing with buttery o-toro topped with caviar. Jason has spent a good many years perfecting his rice recipe. He uses a premium Japanese short-grain rice seasoned with a house blend of black vinegar, salt, and sugar, so you’re getting flavor and texture from the rice that adds complexity and beauty to every piece.

Koete Omakase
1695 Broadway, New York, NY
917-993-4528

Sushi Koju (Ace Hotel Brooklyn)
8 courses, $95 (Mon-Wed)

You may know Ace Hotel Brooklyn for Lele’s Roman or it’s grand lobby bar; but there’s a new pint-sized sushi bar from in Hiro Nishida and LDV Hospitality. You’ll find it in the space that was once a little skylit bar room. It’s got a lovely vibe, like a forgotten room, a treasured secret.

Most days executive Chef Kevin Garrison offers a 14-course omakase journey for $165 per person, but on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, he slashes the price to $95 for an Okonomi menu featuring eight pieces of omakase nigiri — Striped Sea Bream, Yellowtail, Mackerel, Tuna, New Zealand King Salmon, Scallops, baby Kamasu (baby baracuda), and the like — with homemade Shiro miso soup. The menu’s petite size does not detract from its outsized quality; Kevin is a sushi master who has spent his entire career in service of fish — starting out in LA at Chaya and Yume and then here in the city at Sushi Zo Hanare before teaming up with LDV.

Bonus: the room features a rare vintage sound system with bespoke speakers and an Audio-Technica turntable—one of only two in existence—spinning Japanese records while you eat.

Sushi Koju
253 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY

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Dear Parents,

We are so excited that your child will be joining us in just a few weeks at Summer Sunshine Sleepaway (aka Get The Kids Out of My Fucking Hair for Two Months) Camp.

We have a full roster of enriching arts programming, sports, entertainment, fun and excitement planned for them while they unplug and reconnect with nature over the next eight weeks!

But first, a few logistics.

Please read this letter and its Appendices and Addendums in its entirety, preferably in one sitting not interrupted by your kids, your aging mother’s doctors, your editors, your dating apps, or your noisy cat who apparently wants to be fed again. Silence those notifications and set some time aside for yourself! (We recommend three to seven hours).

FORMS

1. Please login to your CAMPMINDER account and fill out all forms. If you don’t have an account yet, registration takes approximately 60 days and requires a unique four-step verification process, so get to it!

2. Yes we know there are 113 forms and that they have to be signed by both parents and notarized and that you filled all of these forms out last year, but practice makes perfect! Persist.

3. The “Favorite Things” form is new this year – this is our way of preparing to greet your child with fond memories and we have found that it helps tremendously in the event of homesickness. The form requires 10+ favorite things (at least one per year since birth), plus first words, and any related childhood traumas around Disney movies with deceased parents. We want to make sure we don’t have any tears or tantrums!

4. The Medical Form must include all allergies and food aversions. Fears, whether realized or not, should be indicated under “Potential Triggers.”

5. Once all 113 forms are filled out, notarized, and signed in blood, please make 37 copies of each and scan them individually into CAMPMINDER. Bulk scans will not be accepted.

6. Camp Forms (all 113) must be submitted by May 5th or your camper will not be permitted to attend camp. (Your deposit and all payments will be kept though).

7. We realize that the labor of filling out forms (and packing and labelling all clothes, see below for more on that) will fall onto the camper’s mother even though she has a demanding full time job at which she is paid ½ of what her male colleagues make, and that she also carries all the invisible labor of the household – cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, medical appointments, fixer of nightmares, finder of missing retainers, airpods, and earrings, and that she also takes care of her aging mother, but we know you will make time to fill these forms out in a timely and careful manner!

CLOTHING AND PACKING LIST

1. Please refer to the attached packing list in Addendum D3 – all campers must come with 14 pairs of every piece of clothing: tops, shorts, tops that appear to be dresses, socks, underwear, and bras that appear to be tops. Yes we realize you will have to go to Target and empty their multi-pack section but do what you must. We will only do laundry every 14 days and you don’t want your child wearing dirty clothes now do you! You do not!

2. Every piece of clothing must be labeled with first and last name; gender identity, preferred name, and pronouns. This includes socks too. We realize the label may be larger than the sock but you’ll figure it out.

3. Labels must be uniform size and we prefer these from Camp Labels R Us (click here for 10% off 200).

4. Towels and sheets and pillows are not provided. Please pack two sets of sheets, two towels, and one hypo-allergenic pillow.

5. Our beds are longer than your average bed so you need to purchase custom made sheets from this website: Expensive Sheets for Camp That Your Kids will Never Use Again.

6. Stuffed animals and comfort items are encouraged. Please refer to Appendix C2 for a list of permitted stuffed animals. Endangered species are not permitted. Come on people.

7. Emotional support pets are not permitted. Last year we had an incident with little Tommy’s emotional support hamster and we can’t really talk about that here but take our word for it, leave them at home.

ARRIVAL AT CAMP

1. Please plan to arrive at camp between 10am and 10:17am on Monday. We value efficiency and punctuality! Early arrivals and latecomers will not be tolerated. You need to set a good example for your campers!

2. If you arrive late, you will be escorted to an alternative drop off area a few miles down the road where you can sit quietly in your hot car and think about your mistakes and why you can’t seem to do anything right.

3. You can accompany your camper to the bunk and help them “set up” their cabins. Then it’s back to I95 which is still bumper to bumper traffic!

VISITING DAYS

1. Please be aware that visiting days are every two weeks on Sundays just to make sure you have no real stretch of time to relax.

2. Sunday traffic tends to be the worst day of the summer for traffic so that’s why we’ve scheduled it then.

3. Campers whose parents do not come for every visiting day tend to feel abandoned and scarred and you wouldn’t want that now would you!

CAMP POT LUCK!

Don’t forget about the Camp Potluck on the last day of camp – please be sure to bring enough of your culturally appropriate dish for the entire camp (425 of us) to share!

We at Summer Sunshine can’t wait to welcome you – between the hours of 10am and 10:17 am – on Monday June 29th! If you have any questions, please login to your CAMPMINDER account and send us a message. Messages will be answered in the order in which they are received and we can’t guarantee a reply before October 2027.

In Camp We Trust,

Marshall Landman
Camp Director

Today’s edition of the Weekend Buzz includes 100 free burgers (yes, the one pictured above), a new American tavern focused on craft beer, an Italian feast, and your ticket to watching the World Cup with freezer-batched martinis.

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Carlos Suarez, the restaurateur behind Bobo, Rosemary’s, Roey’s and Claudette, was sound asleep in Italy on a long-needed family vacation when he got the call. His restaurant, Claudette, would have to close. The landlord reported that there was an issue with the restaurant’s venting system – an old chimney that was now considered a fire risk – and the fire department was shutting him down immediately. One day he had a Provençal restaurant in a landmark Fifth Avenue building in the heart of Greenwich Village, the next day, he didn’t.

Two years of renovations and permitting later, he’s finally reopened Claudette at 24 5th Avenue with chef Igor Cabral at the helm. Igor may not a “name" yet, but he’s got the pedigree to make it happen. Cabral grew up in Portugal and moved to Marseille at 16, where he traded his law studies for his newfound love of cooking. (Sounds familiar.) He spent 10 years in the kitchens of Alain Ducasse – seven in France and three here in New York at Benoît before joining Carlos.

For Claudette, he’s doing a Provençal brasserie menu – seasonal home-cooking and classics, dishes that reflect a personal journey through Southern France. “He grew up in Marseilles and is in love with Provencal cooking and that’s been our calling card,” Carlos told me when we chatted. “He brings a level of authenticity to the menu.”

The menu is heavy on apéro favorites – oeufs mayo with bottarga; pommes chips with a towering heap of thinly sliced jambon de bayonne; crisp chickpea socca with fire-roasted aubergine, and a pissaladière is reinterpreted as a dip of deeply caramelized onions and Picholine olives served alongside a leaf-shaped loaf of fougasse — an ancient Roman flatbread cooked in the hearth’s ashes to gauge the oven temperature.

He’s also offering a robust “du marché” section full of whatever he can haul back from the Union Square Greenmarket – fried zucchini blossoms with Provençal filling, and roasted artichokes with capers and mint — drizzled with olive oil pressed by the French actor Jean Reno.

There’s a bourride derived from Cabral’s first restaurant job, where a rather tyrannical chef taught him that every detail matters in its preparation: perfectly filleted monkfish, rich confited potatoes and beautifully braised fennel. Also, he’s cooking Steelhead Trout simply prepared with classic flavors of the region – lemon and picholine olives, a cast iron chicken that might have you off rotisserie, served with leafy greens, muscat grapes, croutons, and a gorgeous Steak Frites glossed with shallot butter and fries with fizzled herbs and flaky salt. He’s also doing a dish I’d never had before – the rustic meatballs from the Ardèche region known as caillettes that he updates with lamb, which his father would cook every Sunday in Marseille.

If you’re into rosé, the bar will be your summer perch. There’s a big list of gems from the region served at the beautiful backlit bar and its adjacent gathering area, set up with custom train-station benches and enameled bistro tables, a welcoming watering hole for friends and neighbors.

After working with his interior designer cousin Guini Suarez of Dekar Design on all of his prior spaces, Carlos was finally confident (or broke enough after two years of waiting to reopen?) to tackle his eighth restaurant on his own. Luckily the man has impeccable taste. I’d love to live inside this restaurant – warm, soulful, inviting, cozy — all the things.

Carlos reimagined the formerly whitewashed space, adding Venetian plaster, Hollywood booths, and warm rift red oak throughout, from framing the dining room to paneling the backlit bar. His most treasured find? The vintage p4 pendant lights, designed by Otto Muller c. 1930. The opaline stepped-glass lamps, which hang above the bar, were the designer’s homage to Poul Henningsen’ s iconic ph lighting range. In the day it’s flooded with natural light, but in the evening it feels more polished and grown-up, a place to tuck in, stay a while.

About the restaurant’s name, and I had forgotten this. It’s named for Claudette Sammut, the Tunisian-French matriarch who left Tunisia in the 1950s to open several beloved restaurants in Provence, including the acclaimed La Fenière in Lourmarin. It was there, in 2014, that Carlos had dinner and fell so under its spell, he asked if he could take Claudette’s name for his next project before dessert had arrived. Her spirit lives on.

Claudette is located at 24 Fifth Avenue, (212) 868-2424. It is open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m., with lunch and brunch to follow this summer. The 22-seat Flamingo Room, a private dining option complete with its own bar, will reopen come fall. Reservations can be made online at claudettenyc.com, and are also available through the Resy app. Walk-ins are always welcome.

What’s the saying — necessity is the mother of invention? Make lemons out of lemonade? Get someone else to make dessert? Yes, that. That’s what I want to talk about today.

It all started because Dawn Casale had a problem. The owner of the beloved Cobble Hill bakery, One Girl Cookies and DUMBO’s breezy all day cafe Dawn’s till Dusk, was hosting a dinner party. But that wasn’t the issue. Dawn does dinner parties in her sleep; she had her menu planned and prepped, the table scaped, the mood lit, the playlist planned. The problem was dessert. Sure, her bakery was full of beautiful little cookies, frosted cupcakes and whoopie pies, scones, muffins, tarts and quick breads. But she wanted to serve cake, and the layered birthday cakes and wedding cake tiers her shop specialized in were not really suited to dinner with friends.

“The vision for the Dinner Party Cake line came from my own need,” Dawn admitted. “Sometimes when I host I don’t have time to make dessert, and I look at what I have at the shop and while the cookies are always great, I didn’t feel I had anything beyond that for dinner parties. If I wanted a simple almond torte or an olive oil cake I’d have to bake it at home, and I have a bakery! I didn’t want to have to bake at home!” The solution was The Dinner Party Cake ($50 for a nine inch cake), a new line of last course cakes and tarts that answers the call for what to serve (or bring) for dessert.

There are five cakes in the collection – almond, chocolate, and lemon olive oil, with two options that change with the season like summer’s fresh fruit custard tart, spring’s pavlova, and fall’s apple almond. All cakes can be dressed up with your choice of chocolate ganache, sea salted caramel, curds (passion fruit or raspberry) or whips (vanilla bean or fennel) to add a little gloss and glam.

What I love about these cakes is that they look great, taste even better, and they take the panic out of dessert – you have enough on your plate when you’re hosting dinner. Even Dawn outsources her desserts! You can too.

Her cakes are unfussy and beautiful on a plate and customizable so you can truly make them your own with a whip or a curd or just a dusting of confectioners sugar at home before serving. (Toss the box, everyone will think you made them yourself!) Isn’t this the best hack ever?

And as an added gift — Strong Buzz paid subscribers get 10% off Dinner Party cakes through July 31! Code after the paywall. Order your Dinner Party Cakes at One Girl Cookies here. 48 hour notice is preferred.

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I’m heading to the Knicks parade and we’ve got a packed Thursday morning here on The Strong Buzz. I’m sharing news of three great openings — Trudie’s Tavern, Titán, and Capitaine — an open call for back of house team at Humm, and a full slate of fun for The Weekend Buzz with more fro-yo, a dumpling workshop, and a sultry speakeasy.

Trudie’s Tavern

RAD Restaurant Group’s (GERTIE, gertrude’s) Nate Adler, Rachel Jackson, and COO Emliy Tripp will open Trudie’s Tavern tomorrow in the former Buttermilk Channel space down on Court Street. The restaurant, led by chefs Mike Cain (GERTIE, gertrude’s) and Eli Friedman (Edith’s, Mile End Deli) is rooted in classic New York taverns and American supper clubs set up with a warm nostalgic vibe that feels like you’re visiting family in the ‘burbs, maybe Jersey, a house with front porch, an eat-in-kitchen, the radio on, a sprawling yard on a sunny day.

The restaurant continues to tell the story of idiosyncratic, Jewish-ish New York hospitality. While earlier concepts drew more directly from deli and appetizing traditions, Trudie’s leans into a broader American tavern format with a raw bar with oysters, crab claw dijonnaise, and daily crudos and can’t-stop-at-one bar snacks like house-baked pretzels with hot honey mustard (made by GERTIE baker Milly Berman), one “big” potato pancake with seasonally rotating toppings, and pigs in a blanket.

The focal point of the menu is a rotisserie program built around chicken that comes with house chicken sauce, schmaltzy potatoes and dill and sour cream cucumber salad, and a rotating case of sides that will follow the Greenmarket: creamed greens, Rotisserie Cabbage with Dill & Anchovy, butter beans with roasted tomato vinaigrette, and a Boston bibb wedge salad with crispy chicken skin and tahini ranch. The menu also includes a burger, a nice steak, a housemade “handkerchief” pasta, some fish and a limited supply of their “over-sized schnitzel for 2,” alongside the “big potato pancake” (aka an oversized latke).

Trudie’s Tavern opens Friday, June 19th at 524 Court Street. Hours of operation will be 4-10 pm Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday (closed Tuesdays) and 4-11 pm on Friday and Saturdays, with dinner service to start and brunch to follow later in the summer. Learn more at trudies.nyc and follow along at @trudiesnyc.

Capitaine

Capitaine, the new restaurant and bar from Cody Pruitt and Jacob Cohen, the team behind Libertine and Chateau Royale, will also open in the West Village tomorrow, June 19. Capitaine takes the place of their rustic Parisian bistro, Libertine. In its new life as Capitaine, the space is reimagined as a seafood tavern inspired by those found across Europe and New York’s great oyster bars. The menu is primarily seafood, but they’ll also be doing tavern classics like a Wagyu burger. The restaurant is designed as an all-day destination, with indoor and outdoor seating and a reimagined mid-century interior. Capitaine will open with evening and weekend brunch, with weekday service to follow later this summer. Don’t worry; their freezer cold Martinis will still be the best in the city.

Capitaine opens Friday at located at 684 Greenwich Street.

Titán

Alan Delgado (founder of Los Burritos Juarez) and Ivy Mix (Leyenda (RIP) and Whoopsie Daisy), opened Titán last night, their new Mexican spot located in the former Gran Electrica space in DUMBO. Delgado’s menu of fine Mexican cooking includes carne asada tacos with Chihuahua cheese, cod in masa tempura with slaw, and a line of fresh ceviche-adjacent aguachiles.

But the bar here is as exciting as the food, because Ivy’s focusing on both seasonality (for now that means cantaloupe, carrots, oranges, lime, tomatillo, and habanero) alongside the region’s native distillates and spirits like charanda (a Michoacán rum), Oaxacan aguardientes, and eaux de vie. She pouring Micheladas with seasonal sangritas and Leyenda margs on draft. Joining Ivy and Alan are managing partners Julian Brizzi and Lauren Broder (co-owners of Mediterranean Dumbo restaurant Celestine and Boerum Hill bar Grand Army). Broder also designed the 1824 landmarked building to feel like a dreamy Mexican casita with limewashed walls, terracotta finishes, tiles, greens, archways, wooden beams, and shelves packed with plants. They’re also serving outside in that big beautiful patio you probably remember from Gran Electrica days.

Titán is located at 5 Front St. and is open Wednesday through Sunday 5pm-10pm.

Humm Open Call

11 Madison’s chef and owner Daniel Humm, as you may have heard, is opening an eponymous 200-seat restaurant in the former En Brasserie space located at 432 Hudson Street. Yesterday on Instagram he posted an open call for his back of house team, writing, “Restaurants begin with the people who bring them to life. Next week we’re hosting two open calls for @hummrestaurant. If you’re passionate about hospitality and want to build something from the very beginning, we’d love to meet you.” Bring your resume to 11 Madison on Monday June 22, from 12pm-2pm.

Now for your Weekend Buzz, I’ve got a full lineup: a new Fro-Yo opening, a speakeasy to get lost in and a free al fresco dumpling making class that will take you to Georgia.

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James O’Brien, my longtime pal and the owner of Carroll Gardens’ beloved Popina on Columbia Waterfront, has signed a lease for a bar at the Williamsburg Wharf located at 484 Kent Ave. It will be designed by David Rockwell and feature cocktails and wine (obviously) and a small food menu; Vini Fritti snacks and the like.

The location, on a rather unpopulated section of the waterfront area — south of just about everything on the waterfront — is sort of a mirror image to the deserted stretch of the Columbia Waterfront where he opened Popina nine years ago, so he’s pioneering again. But he’ll be in good company over there. Developed by the Naftali Group, The Williamsburg Wharf will have five new residential towers and a public park under construction on the waterfront. Israeli chef Eyal Shani and Good People Group will open a new 4,000 square feet ground-floor restaurant at the Wharf as well.

James made the reveal about the bar on his Substack (you can sign up to follow along on his journey to opening), confessing he was just finally at a place where he could relax when he was sought out for the project by none other than Friend of Chef, the real estate and hospitality gurus known for deals like The Refinery at Domino Park, Tatiana at Lincoln Center, and so on and so on. The deal was conceived and executed by Friend of Chef’s Todd Birnbaum and Nick Martin along with the team at Naftali. “Todd and Nick have worked tirelessly with the great team at Naftali,” said Friend of Chef Founder Keith Durst. “Funny thing is that we helped James find his way to Cobblehook back in the day so being a part of their expansion has been very rewarding for all us.”

“Popina is heading into its ninth year later this summer, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m actually taking some time for myself,” he wrote. “Fewer mornings waking up thinking about the 47 things that are already on fire before I’ve even had coffee. And then I signed a lease for a bar in Williamsburg. A neighborhood I genuinely never thought I’d have any interest in.”

His initial reaction was a polite “probably not.” The vision was “resort-style luxury,” which made him wonder how do you bring soul, character, and neighborhood charm to something so polished and flashy? But then Durst told him that The Rockwell Group would design the bar, and he got a little more intrigued.

He talked to friends. Their reactions were mixed. “Some saw an incredible opportunity,” he wrote. “Others looked at me like I had suffered a mild head injury.”

But then he kept coming back to one word: community. And that was that. “I’ve always loved the idea of creating community in unlikely places,” he said. “Of taking a beautiful, intimidating space and making people feel like it belongs to them. And, selfishly, there’s something exciting about building something that is completely my vision—not a compromise with a partner, not a committee, but an extension of what I love. So here we go.”

He’s tinkering with names at the moment – “Al Banco” fits the concept, but he doesn’t love it. “La Sosta” is beautiful, but apparently someone beat him to it in NYC not that long ago. He’s also considering “La Nicchia—or just Nicchia.” “Intriguing,” he writes, “but I’m not sure I want to spend the next decade teaching every guest how to pronounce the name.” Got a suggestions? Put it in the comments.

The lasting note on this story is this: “One minute you’re convincing yourself to slow down and enjoy what you’ve built,” he wrote in closing his first post on the project. “The next minute, you’re signing a lease for another concept. But I suppose that’s the point. Work hard. Build things you love. Drink good wine. Fall for beautiful people. And occasionally make completely unreasonable decisions that somehow feel exactly right.”

It’s hot and the Knicks are on fire! I’ve got a great weekend of eating planned for you including the best Knicks burger I’ve ever had, an exciting Prospect Heights chef collab, and a stunning seafaring cocktail bar with beer and wine served through….wait for it: cannons.

Read it and eat!

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Last year in my Best of 2025 List, I named Naks, the boisterous and brilliant Filipino restaurant from chef Chef Eric Valdez and the guys from Unapologetic Foods, as the best of the year. If you’ve been, you know why. It’s everything — fantastic food cooked from the heart (this is a restaurant the chef has been wanting to open forever — a tribute to his native Philippines), paired with cocktails with a point of view that beam you to a seaside town somewhere in the Philippines. It’s a full throttle journey of heat, sweet, sour, and fat in every dish and wide green banana leaf. Aside from the fried chicken and the claypot adobo rice, a biryani of sorts layered with garlicky chicken and braised pork belly, a favorite of mine is the Pancit Kabute — an umami storm of noodles with wok-fired king oysters and shiitakes and a sunny-side-up egg that ties it all together. It is the best breakfast for dinner. The restaurant is the sleeper hit of the city.

Now comes Sanwits, the team’s new Filipino sandwich shop, which is a thrilling exercise in brow-mopping, sweaty-faced joy between the bread. Yes, these are sandwiches that will make you feel something, get your heart going. There’s the Lechon Dip — the sexy cousin of the French Dip. This hot hero gets stuffed with pork asado, grilled pineapple relish, and bok choy and comes with a little side of rich brothy goodness for dunking.

Of course there’s a fried chicken sammy — the Chicken Bagoong – his gloriously crackling fried bird with shrimp sauce (yes!) and roasted eggplant aioli on a pillowy brioche, and the Ribeye Cadereta a riff on the rich hearty Filipino kaldereta stew, swiped with a good measure of spicy caldereta sauce.

Of course there is also the Spam Sanwits — a tribute to the favorite tinned lunchmeat — but this one is made from house-made Spam (a serious step above) with marinated onions, lettuce, and super secret sauce on country white bread. For vegetarians he’s doing a Mushroom Adobo Melt with loads of roasted garlic, topped with melted cheese and spicy garlic honey on sourdough. The classic BEC even gets a start turn in the form of the Makati BEC – wagyu brisket topped with a crispy griddled slab of potato hash, fried eggs, melted American cheese, and beef fat mayo on a brioche roll. It’s fab but I do think an on-call cardiologist should come with the sandwich.

On the side, there are Lumpiang (crispy pork spring rolls), and a Filipino riff on Mac & Cheese with Filipino spaghetti sauce, ground beef, hot dogs and cheddar cheese (this one comes with a cardiologist and a scrip for Lipitor). Vinegar fries come with the menu caption, “these are sick, just get ‘em.” That really applies to everything on the menu. Please go and tell Eric I say hi. And also, even if you’re stuffed, walk around the block a few times and go back for the Halo, Halo — a frozen summertime necessity — shaved ice, ube, flan, jackfruit and coconut!

Sanwits is located at 149 First Avenue.

The Escape at The Tiger Den

The Tiger Den is the secret (or maybe not so secret) ‘70s style speakeasy in Lula Mae, the fantastic and beloved Cambodian restaurant in Clinton Hill. The cocktail lounge feels like a set from a disco rave, with tiger-striped bar stools, gold velvet drapery, and silver disco ball lighting. Its cocktail menu channels Yacht Rock Radio vibes with paper umbrella drinks like the “Escape (Piña Colada Song), a deliciously decadent take on the classic made with dark rum, fresh frozen pineapple, Coco Lopez, a little lime, and vanilla ice cream. Get ready to make love at midnight!

Connolly’s

Rupert Holmes’ iconic lovers’ song suggests a meet up at O’Malley’s to plan your escape, but here in real life, you can head over to Connolly’s instead. It may not be O’Malley’s but it’s damn close. This iconic Rockaway Beach surfer favorite is known far and wide for its frozen Piña Coladas, served with a simple maraschino cherry on top. Sure it’s an Irish pub by birth, but it’s morphed into a beach bar of sorts, where locals come together to watch the Knicks, shop Zingara Vintage, and dance the night away to DJs like @rocksouprbny and @juliequinnn. The bar is very community-driven and they do an annual fundraiser to benefit @riserockaway, a nonprofit that “provides civic engagement and youth development programs that advance social equity and the physical well-being.” You’ll love everything about this bar, especially the frosty frozen Piña Coladas, rich with pineapple and Coco Lopez. And you’re right near the dunes of Rockaway, so there’s that.

The No Seas Mamey at Titán

Alan Delgado and Ivy Mix are heading up Titán, the new Mexican spot to open later this month in the former Gran Electrica space in DUMBO. Sure there will be tequila-forward cocktails to match Delgado’s (founder of Los Burritos Juarez) menu of fine Mexican cooking – carne asada tacos with Chihuahua cheese, cod in masa tempura with slaw, and aguachiles. But Ivy, known for her cocktails at Leyena (RIP) and her bar Whoopsie Daisy, is clear that Titán is not a tequila bar. While she will have Leyenda margs on draft, one of the bar’s best cocktails is its riff on the Piña Colada. Her “No Seas Mamey” – loosely translated to “Don’t be a Loser” — is a blend of the acclaimed Mexican rum Paranubes, with a touch of Lustau sherry, pureed Goya mamey puree (that’s a tropical fruit native to Mexico and the Caribbean that gives notes of caramel and almond), a splash of vanilla syrup, cinnamon cane syrup, lemon juice, Coco Lopez, coconut milk and a dash saline. The frozen vacation in a glass is a super exotic cocktail that will instantly transport you to the Riviera Maya.

The Piña Colada at Bar Kabawa

If you’ve been to Bar Kabawa, you know that rum runs through its veins. The more casual sibling of Paul Carmichael’s award-winning Kabawa has me hooked. Perhaps it’s the games of dice and dominoes laid out for playing? Maybe it’s the slushy rum-and-lime soaked daiquiris, poured over hand-cranked shaved ice? Or Paul’s patties, stuffed with the likes of curry crab, short ribs with conch, pepperpot duck and foie, or the eggplant raclette (a sleeper hit). Actually, it’s probably their Piña Colada, an off-menu drink which uses equal parts of two kinds of aged rum, the Bajan Real McCoy 5 Year and Appleton Signature Blend from Jamaica, mixed with Coco Lopez and a bit of unsweetened coconut milk. They add pineapple in the form of small frozen cubes of fruit cut in house, and blend it all with a handful of pebble ice. It’s like a drinkable air conditioner – cools you down when you get heated up.

The Mata Dolores Frozen at Dolores

The Mata Dolores Frozen, served at Dolores, the buzzy Mexico City-inspired cocktail bar and cantina located in Bed-Stuy, is not a classic piña. It’s a cool and creative take on a classic Painkiller, often considered a close cousin to the Piña Colada. This crushable frozen blends Probitas white rum, pineapple, housemade orange cordial, coconut, and a hint of ancho chili and cocoa for a fruity and refreshing cocktail with a kick.

The Roosterlada at Red Rooster Harlem

If we’re giving awards to the Pina Colada I’d most like turned into a shade of lip gloss, it’s going to The Roosterlada at Harlem fave Red Rooster. Served in a pineapple glass, this is one of the most unique piñas because it’s made not only with coconut-infused rum, coconut cream, and fresh pineapple juice, but with grilled pineapple. That last step of grilling the pineapple adds caramelized depth and a subtle smokiness that keeps the cocktail balanced and kind of magical. It’s garnished with fresh pineapple triangles and a pineapple leaf so it feels like you could wear it on your head as a tropical party hat. Have enough of these and you will.

Friends,

I’m thrilled to share that Patrick Watson and Michele Pravda, owners of Smith & Vine, Stinky (RIP) and the Jake Walk (RIP), are opening Hidden Rivers, a new bar and beer garden featuring East Coast and NY State beers, classic cocktails, and beer cocktails! Named for the network of rivers that used to run across Gowanus in the mid-1800s, Hidden Rivers will open at 291 Nevins Street on Tuesday June 9th.

Patrick and Michele have teamed up with a third partner, Dhruv Mohindra, a local dad and longtime neighborhood friend they’ve known since their kids were small. Dhruv bought the building a few years ago and they had long kicked around an idea of opening a bar. With Liar, Liar, the natural wine bar just a few doors down, they knew they wanted to come up with a concept that would lean away from wine to support a diverse ecosystem of bars in the neighborhood.

“We are huge fans of Liar, Liar,” Patrick told me when we chatted earlier this week. “They have a really great wine program, so we are mostly beer-focused.” While Hidden Rivers will have wines by the glass, it will not have a bottle list. Instead the focus will be on New York State beers across 12 taps. Patrick will highlight a different independent East Coast brewery every month with 3-4 taps, and will also sell their cans “as a fun way to market the beer industry and help support indie breweries from Asheville to Maine,” Patrick said. He also promises “one of the best Guinness pulls in the area.” Go test him out.

Inside you’ll find a hand-painted mural of the neighborhood’s century-old hidden rivers (now cemented over by concrete sidewalks and tarred roads), with 14 seats at the bar, and several tables for two, four and six indoors. Out in the back garden, buckets of beers will be served around oversized picnic tables while the Knicks battle it out on wide TV projectors.

Cocktails will include classics and the original Jake Walk, Dave Wonderich’s famed mix of St. Germain, Tequila, Martinique and lime juice. But Hidden Rivers is doing something no bar has really done before — bringing beer-focused cocktails to the forefront. They plan to pour excellent Micheladas, Shandys, and Spaghetts. What’s a Spaghetti? “It’s one of the simplest pleasures in life,” said Patrick of the Spaghett, which was invented in 2016 by bartender Reed Cahill at Wet City Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s a Miller High Life (the Champagne of beers), with an ounce poured out into a shot glass, then the bottle is filled with an ounce of Aperol, keeping the fun and fizzy vibes of an Aperol Spritz at a fraction of the cost.

At Hidden Rivers, the shot of beer goes to the server (cheers!), and the guest gets the Spaghett. Patrick is doing both a daytime and nighttime Spaghett. The day time version will be made with Capeletti and fresh lemon juice and the night time version will be leveled up with an amaro base. “It’s the perfect backyard summertime drink,” he said.

Patrick is also experimenting with a tequila sour beer cocktail and a mix of high botanical gins and wheat beer. “These may sound a bit odd but I promise they are going to taste really fucking good,” he said.

The food menu is brief at the moment – a signature Gowanus hot dog with tater tots and the Stinky pimento cheese spread, and others to come like a chili dog in the fall and perhaps a collab with Pervaiz’s Chaat Dog? They plan on having a cheese plate and maybe doing lobster rolls one weekends in the height of summer. It’s early days but this is gonna be a great spot. “It’s a neighborhood bar, built for the community,” said Patrick. We can’t wait.

Hidden Rivers opens June 9 at 291 Nevins Street in Gowanus.

This weekend we have the Knicks in the finals, and I’ve got some great ways to marry sports with eating and drinking below in the Weekend Buzz. Plus, I’ve got the scoop on Chaat Dog’s special summer long collab series, plus the best beach club in the city, a sensational summer picnic sandwich, and a Bushwick daytime dance party!

Before we get to all that, If you’re looking for a new place to try this weekend – I am hearing Oriana is peak as the kids say. This striking, two-story, 5,600-square-foot restaurant set within a restored 1890s commercial building at 174 Mott Street is the newest spot from the Noortwyck team - Executive Chef Andy Quinn and Sommelier Cedric Nicaise. Like Eugene Remm’s Or’esh and Shelter Island’s Léon 1909, the hook at Orina is a sprawling wood-fired grill where Quinn cooks veggies, fish, and large-format meats, dishes like turbot with mussels, chardonnay, and sea vegetables, a whole BBQ Duck with smoked breast and neck sausage, an “Axe Handle” pork chop with black mustard, coal-baked potatoes with smoked bone marrow and smoked beets with jalapeno and candied pistachio. Check it out if you have time on the weekend and let me know what you think.

And now I’m going to get back to planning Sam’s Bar Mitzvah which is in two days!!!

Lots of love,

Andrea

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Across the city—and increasingly, across the country—restaurants are asking a radical question: what if diners decided what to pay?

In the East Village, the trailblazing, queer-owned fine-dining restaurant HAGS (which will move to a larger space this summer) is expanding its pay-what-you-can model beyond its longstanding sliding scale brunch, launching a new Wednesday night dinner series this week. Starting tomorrow tonight, guests pay whatever they can for a five-course tasting menu—no minimum, no expectation, just an open invitation. Some nights will feature visiting chefs; others will send the HAGS team into partner kitchens around the city.

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They’re not alone. When chef Camari Mick opens her Afro-Caribbean brasserie L’Atelier Ébène this fall, she’ll host Sunday pay-what-you-will suppers. Alex Pincus, reopening Montero’s in Brooklyn Heights, plans $10 Sunday dinners. Bar Bianchi is offering $25.95 family meals on Mondays (with industry pricing at $15.95). And in Boerum Hill, worker-owned sandwich co-op Sea & Soil has been operating on a sliding scale since 2023. “Good food should be for everybody,” owner Noah Wolf told me. “Especially sandwiches.”

The movement is going global, too. Mexico City’s Masala y Maíz is launching an “Eat What You Want, Pay What You Can Day” this August, with participation from more than 20 restaurants, including Michelin-recognized spots.

The Evolution of Pay-What-You-Can

At HAGS, the model isn’t a gimmick—it’s foundational. Chef Telly Justice and sommelier Camille Lindsley first tested it during a pandemic pop-up in 2020. Telly and Camille experimented with a few different ways of running things: they started doing it for free (nope), then switched to offering the five course tasting menu at cost ($35), and then landed on sliding scale model. “That was the most promising model,” said Telly. “It also brought a community out that was so fervently in support of us and that helped us ride the wave into opening a brick and mortar.”

When the restaurant opened in 2023, Telly and Camille built the business around four days of standard revenue. The fifth—pay-what-you-will brunch—was always meant to be a loss leader. Instead, it became a growth engine.

Yes, some diners pay nothing. But others pay far more. One recent table paid $300 over the cost of the actual check. Over time, the average check has risen from $28 per person in 2023 to more than $40 today. More importantly, those guests come back—often as full-price tasting menu diners for celebrations. “It’s how we build relationships,” says Justice. “And in the end, it makes us money.”

Still, Telly worried the model might trigger discomfort—shame, guilt, uncertainty. To counter that, HAGS uses a discreet three-step system: servers explain the model upfront, suggested pricing appears on the check, and guests privately write what they can pay on a slip of paper that comes with the check. No negotiation, no judgment.

The payoff is twofold. It creates access for diners who might otherwise be priced out of fine dining—and it creates opportunity in the kitchen. The new dinner series will be built around whatever the team finds at the Union Square Greenmarket that day, giving cooks a chance to contribute to menu development in real time.

The model has garnered serious word of mouth in the industry; so much that Telly is now teaching it across the country to other restaurants who are interested in adopting the program. She’s already travelled to Philadelphia (Post Haste), New Orleans (Acamaya), Oakland (Joodooboo), Atlanta (Madeira Park), North Carolina (Counter), and LA (Baby Bistro). And it will culminate in an international Pay-What-You-Can Day on August 26th, 2026.

Joy and Gain

When Camari Mick opens the Afro-Caribbean brasserie L’Atelier Ébène in the fall, her Sunday Supper will also be sliding scale. “Hosting a “Pay What You Can” supper, while maintaining fine dining standards, allows those who can’t normally splurge on a night out to treat themselves within their budget,” she said.

Like at HAGS, the Sunday Supper also allows the kitchen team to grow “by minimizing leftover ingredients and produce from the week,” Camari told me. “This not only allows our Back of House team to collaborate and create fun, experimental dishes but also helps them grow more confident in the kitchen.”

For Alex Pincus, the new owner of Montero’s in Brooklyn Heights, his $10 Sunday Supper (launching later this summer), is about joy. “The idea is that it’s a great way to connect with the community directly on a very familial night,” he said. Pincus plans to cook gumbo for the first one, and then host various chef friends and folks from the neighborhood do kitchen takeovers. “The rationale is purely selfish,” he told me. “I want to have an easy-going night where people get together family style in the bar. And I like the $10 constraint. Probably doesn’t make any sense from a revenue perspective, but it hopefully makes sense from a joy perspective.”

Joy is a great goal (more of this please), but in an industry where margins are razor-thin, profits matter. But here’s the thing. What’s becoming clear is that, when done thoughtfully, these models aren’t just acts of generosity—they’re smart business models. They build loyalty, expand audiences, and create a sense of shared investment between restaurants and their communities.

In other words, they don’t just rewrite the check. They rewrite the relationship.

Thinking of having a party this summer? I am. I have a plan to sweep out the pollen, pull out all the overgrown weeds, prune those rosebushes, and try to assemble some friends in my ramshackle backyard sometime soon. Maybe you’re thinking of doing the same? Perhaps you have an upstate house, a North Fork cottage or some kind of bungalow somewhere you can gather your tribe? Even just your studio apartment. I’ve got the best party trick. The Oystertainer.

You’ve probably seen a roving oyster shucker cheerfully weaving in and out of a party wearing a bucket-clad belt and a shell in hand? I first saw them at a party given by the Sleep No More folks and then learned about the roving oyster shucker business from my friend Julie Qiu, author of In A Half Shell and cofounder of the Oyster Master Guild, the world’s first oyster sommelier certification program.

This ‘free-range’ concept was initially developed 24 years ago by Netherlands native Matijn Wijn, who created the concept of a mobile oyster shucking, including the whole outfit with the leather apron and buckets. Matijn quite enjoyed his role as a mobile shucker; he loved to chat with folks and to educate people about oysters and he really started connecting with guests while opening a fresh oyster on the spot.

Not surprisingly, his Oystertainment® was an overnight success and since then he has grown the company; he and his team of oystertainers now rove around shucking bivalves across the world in the NL, Belgium, London, Italy and New York.

Here in NYC the business is run by Angelique van der Made, who moved here from the Netherlands almost 9 years ago to set up Oystertainment’s Red Oyster USA. And it has been growing since with Oystertainers in NYC, NJ, Philly, Boston, and DC.

Her teams of Oysterainers are amazing – many of them are stage and screen actors by day, oyster shuckers by night, so they are very good at the entertainment part of the job. And the oysters they shuck are stunning. Ehether plump and creamy, or minerally and briny, they grown by a handpicked group of farmers who’ve workd with Red Oyster over the years to grow oysters of superior and consistent quality and exquisite taste. Their oyster farmers ship crates of crops every night to their suppliers in Brooklyn,Boston, or DC so the oysters are always fresh. They’re not buying from any middlemen; they do all the sourcing directly with the farms. It makes a difference.

Shuckers serve their oysters anyway you like ‘em: naked, with a squeeze of lemon, a hit of hot sauce, or one of four of their signature mignonettes, and they can also share a bit about the oyster’s terroir and farm so you get an oyster and an education.

They recently added caviar to their repertoire – what they call Caviartainment – so you can get a dollop of caviar on your oyster or on a blini with some crème fraiche or a little bump. You pick the type of caviar you like; they offer different price tiers for imported and local caviar.

Here’s the thing: I just love Red Oyster’s Oystertainment – it really adds something dynamic and out of the ordinary to a party, and it also supports small local farmers and a slew of artists and creatives working in the field. It’s a win-win for all.

If you’re interested in hiring an Oystertainer for your summer soiree, reach out to Angelique and be sure to mention The Strong Buzz and you’ll get 10% off!

Friends,

Last week I was visiting my mom when I ran into a friend of hers from her Assisted Living—an affable, white harried, blue-eyed 99-year old man I’ll call Harry. Now Harry is someone I’ve gotten to know over the years my mom has been at her AL. Widowed, from the Midwest, and one of nine kids, Harry is always good for a chat and a laugh; I often find him while he’s doing the crossword or when he’s coming back from his morning promenade. Harry is also very affectionate. He likes to get in there and kiss me (he always tries for the lips) and usually tries to grab something too. I don’t usually mind; I feel like the man is 99, he’s harmless.

But last week he really laid one on me, full on trying to make out with me. It was not consensual. I know I have to be more clear with what is okay and what’s not with Harry, but it also got me thinking that Harry cannot be the last person I kiss. And at the rate I’m going, he might be.

You see, I haven’t had a date since the winter when I was with the guy who nearly killed me during the hike from hell, what I called my Alpine Divorce. I’ve thought about going back on the apps, but I can’t do it; they just suck up so much time swiping and scrolling and only to wind up sitting across from someone who makes me yearn to be home on my couch with my cat.

So I abandoned the apps and figured; well I go out all the time, I’ll meet someone IRL! But IRL meetings tend to other fabulous women or men who are too young or who would prefer to date Shane and Ilya than me. So that brings us to this somewhat bizarre post.

Which is what brings us here. I want you to fix me up! That’s right. There are nearly 10,000 of you here reading The Strong Buzz every week and one of you must know someone here in the NYC area – a friend, a brother, a work colleague, a running buddy, that cute guy with a book in his back pocket you know from the dog park (wink, wink). So here goes nothing.

Who I’m looking for: I mean your guess is as good as mine, but I’d say broadly speaking I’m searching for a food-loving guy in his 50s, who’s funny, kind, grounded, interesting and interested. If he looks like Jon Hamm or a relative of Jon Hamm, even better.

About me: You probably know a lot about me if you’ve been reading The Strong Buzz but I’ll share a bit more. I’m a native New Yorker, mid-50s, very amicably divorced for five years now, two teenage kids, and one ridiculous cat. I live in Brooklyn, I can’t keep plants alive, I love running (slowly), I’m a voracious reader, I love Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, and Shrinking, my favorite hobbies are going to restaurants and theater. I can play piano on a middle school level and I am a decent cook. I’m more silly than serious, I lean more left than right, and I’d rather go on a beach vacation than up a mountain to go skiing; I am a sucker for a frozen drink and a blue sea. If you need photos of me, check out my Instagram.

I know this is a crazy request. But look at it as a kind of contest or a ridiculous opportunity to make a match. I can’t wait to hear who you’ve got for me. Got someone you think I should meet? Have them email me! I’ll keep you all updated on how things go. And if you make a match, you get a prize!

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I had a big scoop this week with my news that Danny Meyer is going to be opening his first full-service restaurant in Brooklyn, NY at the Hotel Bossert. In other restaurant news, I’m also hearing from Max Kutner that Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, author of Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D’ who worked at Raoul’s, The River Café, Minetta Tavern, and Le Coucou before opening his first restaurant Cecchi’s, is opening a new restaurant. He’s preparing to take over a space in the SoHo area, one that will be bigger than his current spot. “I’m doing a New York brasserie,” he told Max “Two floors, two bars, two private dining rooms.” He doesn’t have a name for it yet, and he expects it will take about a year to open.

For the Weekend Buzz, I’ve got a fun backyard cocktail and cookbook event happening tonight in Williamsburg, a weekly Somm Series for folks who are into geeking out on grapes, and a running club for food lovers (me!).

See you Monday!

xx

Andrea

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Almost a year ago now, I broke the news that the Hotel Bossert, at 98 Montague Street at Hicks Street for 117 years now, was acquired by real estate developer SomeraRoad with a plan was to reopen the building as luxury residences with an anchor restaurant tenant to be determined.

Today, the team emailed me with the news that Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has been chosen to run the F&B; it will open its first full service restaurant in the hotel’s 3,200 square feet of prime ground-floor space in late 2028. So far a name and concept for the restaurant have not been decided.

“Change happens slowly; you can’t click your heels,” said Ian Ross, founder of SomeraRoad, and a longtime Brooklyn Heights resident. “When I look down and up the block, I am enthralled with what is going on.”

This is a developing story and I will update with more as I have more on the concept and the like.

The Hotel Bossert is located at 98 Montague Street (Hicks Street), Brooklyn Heights, ushg.com.

Happy Thursday and welcome to your Memorial Day Weekend. It seems we have returned to fall; hope you enjoyed the past five days of sweltering summer.

If you’re in town, I have your entire weekend mapped out for you: an insanely delicious (yet wildly affordable) omakase, an exciting new restaurant from alumni of Atomix, a brunch brought in from Mexico City, and a buzzy new cocktail and raw bar with sprawling riverfront views in Brooklyn. Read it and eat!

xx

Andrea

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Everyone’s talking about the $40 half chickens, and the lines for Myka’s Greek Frozen Yogurt, and the amazing British coastal pub food at Dean’s (which, admittedly is fab). But no one’s talking about the clams at Bufón. I’m here to change that. It feels good to have purpose.

But wait. Let’s back up a second. Let me first tell you a little about Bufón, a charming restaurant that opened late last year on the Lower East Side. It’s on the wide busy corner where Sauce used to be, right at the elbow of Rivington and Allen, and it comes from the culinary team behind the West Village wine bar Demo – Wildair alumni Jacob Nass, chefs Quang “Q” Nguyen and Dina Fan and partner Ian Henderson-Charnow.

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Chef Q has a kind of cool backstory: he studied trombone for 11 years in college before starting his restaurant career in Texas and New Orleans, but working front of the house. When he moved to New York City, he shifted to the back of the house, cooking in top kitchens including Má Pêche, Cosme, and Wildair, where he met Jacob and Ian. Dina began cooking 16 years ago in New York City, starting at En Japanese Brasserie. From there she moved to Ma Pêche (where she met Q) then to Tertulia, before going overseas to spend time in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. Once back in New York, she cooked at several top natural wine focused restaurants like Hemlock, the Four Horsemen, and Racines.

At Bufón, as at Demo, Jacob runs wine and service, pouring an exciting and delicious list that represents a broad range of terroir-driven, low-intervention winemakers. The cocktails are also terrific — including one of the best Old Fashioneds in the city — made with Cognac and Armagnac, Angostura bitters, rich demerara syrup, muddled orange and Luxardo cherries, served on two big rocks of ice.

The hook at Bufón is reimagining classic Mediterranean and European cuisine through a contemporary lens that’s reflective of the chefs’ eclectic experience and ancestry. That means plates imbued with a yin-yang of traditional and unconventional, with cooks coloring inside the lines of classic French cooking, but turning the canvas sideways and adding bolts of global strokes from a life’s worth of travels and stories. And about the name. “Bufón is Spanish for jester or clown,” Jacob told me. “It’s our reminder not to take ourselves too seriously.” That sense of joy is a thread sewn through the fabric of this exceptional restaurant.

Now back to those clams. They are gently blanched, just barely cooked, and served on the half-shell, in a Laotian sauce called Jeow som, a sweet-tart-spicy dipping sauce that Q learned from his Laotian brother-in-law. It’s sunny and tart, fiery and sour, a big bomb of happy umami from a perfect balance of fish sauce, chiles, sugar, garlic, mushroom powder and a flurry of tiny cilantro stems. Toss these back and you will gasp. It’s impossible to stay quiet, and you should not. Picture a swim in a clear cold ocean; the sensation of losing your breath, of being fully alive. They are that good. Order two rounds, or more if you like. This is not a place to ration joy.

There is more on the menu to double down on. The sugar snaps, cut into inch-long trapezoids, bright green and snappy as a Pop song, fat with sweet peas, are served in a shallow bowl of a sort of pesto made from the peas, garlic, jalapeño, toasted pepitas and mint. Maddy and I thought about going into the kitchen and cooking some spaghetti to toss in there, it would make such a gorgeous pasta dish. But we stayed at our table, devouring the plate, with all its textures and fresh spring flavors on every bite.

The artichokes are also essential – leaves like miniature fans fried to French fry crispness, dressed with a sauce vierge, the classic raw French sauce that Q and Dina make from finely diced tomatoes, onions, olives and black garlic, tucked next to some whipped feta. It’s an amazing Mediterranean riff on chips and salsa.

Larger plates are equally compelling. Have the rainbow trout – steamed in a banana leaf and glossed with a dill beurre blanc with asparagus trout roe; gorgeous, elegant, exciting. Morels come up all creamy and plump with pine nuts and drifts of parmigiano-reggiano, tossed around in a bowl of al dente spaghetti. Duck is served with dates and pickled cipollini, and tardivo in a sticky duck tare similar to the one Ned makes over at Zoli for his duck hearts. Brilliant minds.

The Sugar Hill farms pork chop is also something to behold, sliced into juicy slabs, swimming in a sofrito made from Chinese bacon—a traditional dry-cured pork belly—and framed with tender braised butterbeans and sharp broccoli rabe. The team also does a nice selection of steaks – picanha, a koji-marinated short rib, a ribeye and a bavette, that you can pair with fries, or crispy confited potatoes, some sauteed spring greens or chile-crisped long beans. You could just go for steaks and all sides and their freezer-cold martinis and the clams of course. Consider it.

The space has a been-here-forever vibe, with floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open wide to the busy grit of the street and a friendly oval bar that feels welcoming and well-worn; a place where everyone knows your name even though you’ve only just walked in. Designer Camilla Deterre keeps the front bar room breezy and more vibey, with a cozier, quieter, more intimate dining room tucked away past the bar room, so it’s a restaurant that can fit any mood or occasion.

Bufón has not been in the press all that much, so you probably haven’t read about it, but now you have. And I’ve told you about the clams. My work is done. Now go eat. Can’t wait to hear what you think.

Bufón is located at 78 Rivington St, (201) 839-6701, opentable.com.

Good Girl, a sweet grocery, prepared food market and all-day cafe, soft-opened last week and officially got going yesterday in the space that was Blue Sky bakery in Park Slope. The chameleon-like culinary space comes from Gretchen Brinson, a chef and Brooklyn mom who used to run Home Cooked, a meal delivery and catering service that’s now been folded into her all-day cafe model.

Good Girl opens at noon for coffee and freshly baked goods—cookies, cinnamon rolls, a rotation seasonal focaccia and the like, alongside home-cooked meals by Gretchen and her team in house.

Gretchen’s style of cooking is flavor-forward and high impact like stewed za’atar chickpeas with sesame; fresh cod with tomato, lemon and herbs; grass-fed beef kofte with tahini; sweet potato falafel, herb-roast chicken; stewed French lentils; and a roster of sweets like orange-pistachio cookies, lemon cheesecake bars, lemon-thyme shortbread. She does a different menu every day and her rotations will change every week. There are also grab and go take-away items homemade sauces and freshly made pasta.

In the pantry, dairy case, and grocery you’ll find a curated selection of crave-worthy and useful goods – Burlap and Barrel spices, Mama Lam’s Malaysian curry paste, as well as local cheeses, Nut Hatch Milks, fair-trade coffee, heirloom beans, rice, freshly milled flour, tinned fish, and condiments.

You can eat-in at one of the space’s four counter seats or pack it up to go home or to eat on a bench in the Park. Good Girl also has a back yard which will be used for workshops ranging from knife skills, to cookie and cake decorating, cocktail classes, flower arranging, and other creative culinary and culinary-adjacent events, some taught by Gretchen and others by skilled neighbors and friends. She will also host tasting parties and workshops with her vendors and small farm partners.

Look out for one with Zany Farms Honey, an upstate honey farm run by husband and wife master beekeepers who plan to do beekeeping workshops and honey tastings, and eventually put a hive in Good Girl’s backyard for super local honey.

“We want Good Girl to become a home where we can host and have other people host,” Gretchen told me. It’s a welcome spot for a casual and delicious lunch or dinner, an easy way to bring elevated home cooking to your home.

Good Girl is open for delivery and take away only at the moment with in store hours opening June. It is located 53 Fifth Avenue between Bergen and St Marks Place in Brooklyn, 718-313-9799.