Headliner
Amarena
Against the odds, the chef Julian Medina is an optimist when it comes to the business of owning restaurants. Just this past year he opened three, and he is about to add another for a total of 12 at various levels of service and price. The newest one, open later this week, is his first that is not rooted in his native Mexico or even Cuba, like his Cuban-style diner, Coppelia. It is Italian. “My cooking background is French, my restaurants are Mexican but there’s a place in my heart for Italian,” he said. “I’m ready to cook my own interpretation.” His ode to Italy, named for the Italian sour cherry, looks to Roman cooking and that of coastal areas. It has moved into the Upper East Side townhouse space occupied until last year by the Simone. But unlike the garden-level predecessor, his restaurant, with 60 seats, will occupy two floors and will add a bar in the almost summery setting with light colors accented with green downstairs. Upstairs, a more opulent room is done in a ruby palette; both areas will offer the same menu. Louis Skibar, a frequent partner, is a co-owner. To begin, the restaurant will serve dinner featuring various supplì, like arancini; baked clams with salsa verde; bucatini carbonara with duck guanciale and duck eggs; pappardelle with Sunday gravy and beef cheeks; and suckling pig agrodolce. Soon, there will be breakfast with panini and classic Italian pastries like sfogliatelle, and lunch. The wine list is all Italian.
(Opens Thursday) 151 East 82nd Street, 212-837-1841, amarenanyc.com.
Opening
Demo
There’s a disruptive attitude at this newcomer from the chef Quang Nguyen and the wine director Jacob Nass, both of whom worked at Wildair, and in partnership with Ian Henderson-Charnow, who co-owns Greenberg’s bagels in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Named for the nearby Father Demo Square, it’s billed as French and Mediterranean but breaks rules nonetheless. Mr. Nguyen applies tonnato treatment to beef tongue, bakes crab with café de Paris butter usually reserved for steak, and dresses lobster in trendy au poivre sauce, another steak accouterment. Mr. Nass’s wine selections are often natural and offbeat, from what he calls renegade producers. Even the décor in the 40-seat spot is challenging, suggestive of the punk-rock era and the legendary Max’s Kansas City, especially in the jazzy rear dining room, open in the evening. A daytime cafe will sell coffee and cookies. Then there are the bagels, from a branch of Greenberg’s occupying a nearby storefront.
34 Carmine Street (Bleecker Street), instagram.com/demo.nyc.
Class on 38th
Loosening the ground rules for typical Japanese fare is the mission of the chef Alexander Lee, a partner in the Southeast Asian restaurant Nemesis in the Flatiron district, and Antidote, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He brings touches of luxury to the table in a gilded setting with vintage accents, and the intimate space has an open kitchen. The ingredients for small plates include scallops from Hokkaido with uni, roasted oysters with uni butter, chawanmushi with snow crab and two kinds of Wagyu combined in a tartare with truffle duxelle and foie gras. Main dishes showcase pan-roasted heritage chicken with oyster mushrooms, and Wagyu zabuton (Denver cut) steak. Among the wines, there are nine still and two sparkling for less than $60.
55 West 38th Street, 929-292-0691, classon38th.com.
Atelier Jolie
Angelina Jolie has opened this NoHo fashion and art workshop (open by appointment) with a cafe area (no appointment needed) run by Eat Offbeat, an organization with a base in Chelsea Market that employs refugees. The space was formerly the studio and home of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
57 Great Jones Street (Bowery), atelierjolie.com.
