Restaurant Openings Report: Week Of October 5, 2014
Hong Kong
Hong Kong's very first Caribbean-inspired bar and restaurant, Rummin' Tings, is gearing up to open on Hollywood Road. The menu will showcase chef Kris Olbrich's Caribbean-inspired street food, with predominant influences from Trinidad and Jamaica, in addition to other West Indian islands. Signature dishes will include Jamrock jerk chicken, Jamaican beef patties, and conch salad, among others.
New York
Shabu Shabu Kobe Midtown, one of the largest Japanese restaurants in New York, has opened on 36th Street in Manhattan. They believe that proper Japanese food uses ingredients that are good for one's health, and is prepared with a painstaking attention to detail to create a delicate flavor while remaining nutritious and low in calories. The menu at Shabu Shabu Kobe Midtown will speak to that philosophy and boast shabu shabu, izakaya dishes, sashimi, tempura, and more that aim to provide this type of cuisine to American consumers.
Champion Coffee of Greenpoint opens its first Manhattan location next Tuesday, October 14. The coffee shop is part of the new Gansevoort Market, a 7,500 square-foot open-air marketplace featuring over 20 vendors, located in the Meatpacking District. The new location of Champion offers espresso drinks, cortados, macchiatos, cold brew coffee, and more in a casual setting.
MOUNTAIN, a unique hybrid space in Crown Heights featuring healing food, Five Element acupuncture, naturopathy, Chinese herbs, and classes, is now open. Its Apothecary Kitchen serves prepared foods that are seasonal, local, and made with traditional methods. Among the offerings is the raw Locavore's soup and a seasonal Verdure curry, as well as gluten-free baked goods, Sightglass coffee, cold-pressed juices, and elixirs and tonics to support health.
King Bee is one of the newest additions to the East Village restaurant scene. Inspired by the culinary evolution that resulted from the Acadian immigration to Louisiana, chef Jeremie Tomczak of Aquavit, Red Rooster Harlem, and the French Culinary Institute, has developed a menu that brings a modern, seasonal approach to flavors from this unique culture with dishes such as pork crackling with peanuts; farro salad with mirliton, almonds, garden lettuces, and buttermilk vinaigrette; and poutine râpée with lamb neck, turnips, and partridgeberries.
Miami
Acclaimed New York City restaurateurs John McDonald, Joshua Pickard, and Josh Capon of Mercer Street Hospitality are preparing to open The Rum Line this fall in the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Featuring original and long-lost recipes from Florida's past, the restaurant will aim to resurrect classic bartending techniques to create one-of-a-kind elixirs. A menu of small plates and raw bar offerings, created by the culinary team at Lure Fishbar, will complement the cocktails' bold flavors. Dishes will include jerk chicken lollipops, crispy oysters, mini lobster rolls, and more.
Las Vegas
Lago by Julian Serrano, a new concept from the James Beard Award-winning, Michelin-decorated chef, will debut at Bellagio Resort & Casino in March 2015. The dining room will feature spectacular views of the resort's iconic fountains, and adjacent to the dining room, an open-air patio will provide waterfront seating centered on Lake Bellagio. Lago's small plate menu will deliver a dynamic new experience to the AAA Five Diamond resort's award-winning culinary program. Selections will include antipasti offerings such as carpaccio and bruschetta, fresh pastas such as risotto and gnocchi, an assortment of pizzas, and exquisite main dish selections such as salmon, chicken, and steak. Side dishes also will be available to accompany any menu item. Additionally, the restaurant will showcase a sophisticated mixology program.
San Francisco
Tender Greens is pleased to announce the opening of its 16th location in San Francisco, located on King Street. Executive chef Jodie Olson will helm the kitchen with her market-driven style to offer the restaurant's signature menu items comprised of salads, sandwiches, hot plates, soups, and housemade pastries, as well as ever-changing daily specials, which will occasionally draw from Jodie's Korean heritage. Additional daily specials will include dishes such as fish tacos, steamed mussels with tomatoes and fennel, and braised beef with farro wheat risotto. New to the menu and unique to the King Street location is a sweet potato noodle salad made with farmer's market vegetables and finished with housemade kimchi shitake soy vinaigrette.
Kate Kolenda is the Restaurant/City Guide Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @BeefWerky and @theconversant.