Headliner
Alligator Pear
Though given a popular name for avocado, this New Orleans restaurant, bar and event space is not serving any for now. “I haven’t yet figured out how I want to prepare it, maybe blackened, but it is coming,” said Dominick Lee, the executive chef and a New Orleans native. But tempura alligator bites do lead the menu. New York may be known for urban alligator sightings and rumors, but Mr. Lee gets his reptile meat from a Louisiana farm. The rest of his menu delivers the Big Easy with blue crab beignets, oysters, jambalaya with shrimp and andouille or just vegetables, gumbo, shrimp and okra stew, and bread pudding, and includes family recipes like his mother’s potato salad. Mr. Lee, 34, moved with his mother to New York after Hurricane Katrina, and he eventually become a chef in Houston where he met Kevin Doherty, an owner of the new restaurant with Rehan Alam, another restaurateur. The main dining room and bar are done in polished wood with rose and blue accents, and the Oak Room for private events is on the ground floor of the grandiose three-story space. Upstairs is another bar and several areas, mostly intimate, for private dining. The underground cellar can accommodate up to 150 people.
150 West 30th Street, 646-868-7884, alligatorpearnyc.com.
Opening
Port Sa’id
Inspired by an outdoor restaurant and music venue of the same name in Tel Aviv, this spinoff in Hudson Square is the also the work of the Israeli chef and restaurateur Eyal Shani, along with Shahar Segal. Here, the 4,000-square foot space is indoors, divided into several areas for dining, drinking, listening to vinyl and shopping. The menu is typical of Mr. Shani’s repertoire at places like Miznon and Shmone, with Middle Eastern sandwiches and stews, spiced roasted vegetables and kebabs.
350 Hudson Street (King Street), 212-256-0841, portsaidnyc.com.
Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza
New Haven-style pizzas — red, white and clam from a wood-fired oven — are on the menu at this new dining component for Grimm Artisanal Ales. It’s an indoor-outdoor space on the roof of the building that houses the brewery and its sibling, Physica Wines. Unlike those in New Haven, Conn., the pizzas here are built on thin sourdough crusts fermented with the cultures used in the brewery’s sour beer. The summer menu also features a hot pepperoni pizza with tomatoes and a squash pizza with squash blossoms. (Opens Friday)
990 Metropolitan Avenue (Morgan Avenue), 718-564-9767, grimmales.com.
OxKale
This is a takeaway adjunct to Kokomo, a Caribbean restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and just steps away. Salads, bowls, gyros and components to assemble your own feature: jerk chicken, cassava, plantains, pineapple, and assorted grains and greens.
52 North 11th Street (Kent Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 347-725-3249, oxkale.com.
