Happy Thursday my friends!
Whatcha doing this weekend? If I may, I think you’ll want to try John McDonald’s gorgeous new restaurant in the freshly renovated W Union Square. Seahorse has just opened and it’s pretty special. The menu by chef John Villa (remember him from Pico?) is, as you might imagine, seafood-focused with lots of crudo and a raw bar of your dreams. Villa’s main courses lean heavily on ingredients sourced across the street at the Union Square Greenmarket: grilled branzino is perked up with salsa verde and charred trevisano; Maine cod is topped with green olive tapenade and late summer tomatoes; Steelhead Salmon comes in a citrusy sorrel emulsion with chanterelles and cipollini; and a classic Dover Sole comes with sauce Meuniere. For carnivores, he’s also doing a Pan Roasted Amish Farm Chicken, a NY Strip, and a Duck a L’Orange. Don’t sleep on his Triple Cooked Fries.


Designed by The Rockwell Group, the room has a vintage maritime vibe with lots of dark wood paneling and striped yacht-inspired floors, aquamarine fish scale tiles, plus a whimsical, nautical mural giving a Moby Dick vibe at the center of the space. The bar is its own sexy thing, a u-shaped perch perfect for drinks before or after dinner. Get a table here!
I hope to see a lot of you on Monday evening at The Yacht Club by Crew for The Strong Buzz Oyster 101 Workshop. Tickets get you a one-hour lesson with Oyster Master Guild’s Julie Qiu and Yacht Club’s Oyster Director Lars Viola, plus snacks and oysters to eat under a late summer sky. Tickets are $50 each and available here!
Your Weekend Buzz includes intel on a food crawl in Carroll Gardens, A Bake-Off in Queens and a Sunday Roast with a stellar winemaker. Have a great one and see you Monday!