Headliner
L’Abeille
From the start, TriBeCa’s conversion from warehouse district to restaurant hub has featured opulent, high-end dining destinations. Think Chanterelle, Montrachet, Bouley, Mr. Chow and Danube. This has not changed: More recent additions include One White Street, Atera, Jungsik and now this restaurant, set in a former coffee and tea warehouse. The executive chef and a partner, Mitsunobu Nagae, is serving French fare with Japanese touches in a setting at once informal, with no tablecloths, and luxuriously appointed with plush snow-pea velvet. Mr. Nagae, 34, who is from Osaka, worked in Paris at Le Doyen before moving onto the Joël Robuchon empire, including L’Atelier in New York, and later Shun. When he wound up at loose ends once the pandemic closed down restaurants, Rahul Saito, an affluent local resident with a taste for fine food, tapped him for this new enterprise. They define it with the French term “bistronomie,” meaning a bistro for elegant dining. As for the restaurant’s name, it’s a sly reference to the Mitsu, meaning honey, in the chef’s name. (“Abeille” means “bee” in French.) Mr. Nagae’s menu includes pigeon glazed with miso and grilled over binchotan charcoal, lobster marinated with vanilla vinaigrette, and a dessert of strawberries with lychee, rose and shiso. There’s a six-course tasting menu, $180, in addition to à la carte. French bottles and especially Champagnes dominate the wine list, which is curated by John Mckenna, the beverage director.
412 Greenwich Street (Laight Street), 212-542-3898, labeille.nyc.
Opening
Momoya Soho
A third location with a more upscale approach for this Japanese restaurant, which marries classic sushi and chawanmushi with items like a tuna tortilla, has opened. It’s on two floors, but a sushi omakase ($150) is served only at the ground-floor sushi bar, which has 12 seats. (Opens Wednesday)
47 Prince Street (Mulberry Street), 646-429-9315, momoyanyc.com.
Keys & Heels
Massimo Lusardi’s In Tune Hospitality has added this lounge, masquerading as a locksmith and shoe repair, to the block where it also has Uva and Uva Next Door. The new spot, done with velvet accents, serves drinks and small plates.
1488 Second Avenue (78th Street), 917-557-0217, keysandheelsnyc.com.
Manero’s
The film “Saturday Night Fever” inspired this red-sauce joint, an outgrowth of Manero’s Pizza. You just might know what to order without even looking at the menu, except that there’s no chicken Parm. (Wednesday)
113 Mulberry Street (Canal Street), 212-345-6789, maneros.pizza.
Source: NY Times
