Headliner
Rua Thai
Kornpon Theeraumpornkul, the chef and an owner of this charming new Thai spot, comes from central Thailand, where Damnoen Saduak, one of the largest of the country’s famous floating markets, is located. His new restaurant is inspired by those markets, and decorated with photos of them and food they might deliver. (His family also worked in the market.) He has spent the past 20 years working in Thai restaurants in New York, and has brought some of his colleagues from those restaurants to this venture. Dolporn Thongneam, the bartender, is one of them. Brick walls, some with gilded Thai script, crystal chandeliers, bright upholstery and pillows, and baroque Lucite chairs define the space. Mr. Theeraumpornkul’s lengthy menu features fresh summer rolls, curry dumplings, fish curry custard, shrimp doughnuts stacked on sugar cane, grilled river prawns, pineapple seafood fried rice served in a pineapple, and kai tod had yai, fried chicken with a massaman curry dip. The colorful, inventive cocktails and mocktails include ingredients like lemongrass, lychee, butterfly pea juice and milk tea.
204 Smith Street (Baltic Street), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, 718-797-5121, ruathai.com.
Opening
Roscioli NYC
In 2021, Roscioli, the famed Roman salumeria and restaurant, was in residence in the West Village at Ariel Arce’s Niche Niche for a pop-up. Fast forward to this week and Roscioli, with Ms. Arce as a partner, now has a restaurant and salumeria in New York. The restaurant is below street level, and serves tasting menus, $105, two seatings a night. The ground floor salumeria and wine bar is to open in late summer.
43 Macdougal Street (King Street), no phone rosciolinyc.com.
Café Chelsea
A French American bistro is the latest addition to the Hotel Chelsea, where El Quijote, the Spanish restaurant, has operated as a full-service restaurant since 1930. The newcomer, in the former Capitol Fishing Tackle Shop, offers a dining room with a traditional zinc bar and vintage chandeliers. There will be a private dining room. Like El Quijote, it is run by Sunday Hospitality with Charles Seich. The chef is Derek Boccagno, whose menu features roast chicken, steak tartare, frisée aux lardons, boudin blanc and noir, Parisian gnocchi and steak frites. (Opens Friday).
218 West 23rd Street, no phone, cafechelseanyc.com.
ETI
The Israeli chef Nir Sarig has been doing pop-up dinners and consulting while percolating a new restaurant. Now the pop-ups have become a more formal series, to be held in a wooden house in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where the opera singer Maria Callas was said to have been a guest. The eight-course menu ($180 plus wine) will skew toward the Middle East and North Africa. Reservations are available July 14 through 16, July 21 through 23, and July 28 through 30, with seatings at 6 and 8:30 p.m.
