Banh Anh Em
Banh Vietnamese Shop House on the Upper West Side, with seats still a challenge to score after five years, now has a downtown sibling (anh em means brotherhood or sisterhood). What distinguishes John Nguyen and the chef Nhu Ton’s latest effort is that the bread for the banh mi, a Vietnamese take on a French baguette, is baked in-house. The noodles for pho are also homemade. The space is larger.
99 Third Avenue (13th Street), banhanhem.com.
Little Fino
Taking their cue from Italy, breakfast items like cornetti and a spinach frittata, followed by all-day snacks, small bites and sandwiches like a roasted artichoke, polenta tots, prosciutto and a chicken muffuletta, are served at this cafe and bar. It’s headed by Anthony Ricco, a chef in Andrew Carmellini’s NoHo Hospitality Group, and has been added to the ground floor of the William Vale in Brooklyn.
The William Vale hotel, 111 North 12th Street (Wythe Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-581-5900, littlefinonyc.com.
Async
Reversing standard procedure, this new bar is in the back, not the front, of the dining room at YongChuan on the Lower East Side. The owner, Tony Li, tapped Droveen Zhang, the head bartender at Epic Bar in Shanghai, to come up with drinks that reflect various Chinese regions. The Spicy Madame suggests Hunan, and the Silk Road Negroni, made with red date brandy, represents Xinjiang. Alongside there are Peking duck tacos, Ma La prawns and seaweed popcorn chicken.
YongChuan, 90 Clinton Street (Delancey Street), 646-609-6324, yongchuannyc.com/bar.
Akoya
For the first time, the chef and restaurateur Charlie Palmer has added a Japanese restaurant to his portfolio. It’s in the St. Cloud Rooftop at Times Square in the Knickerbocker Hotel, where Mr. Palmer already has a coffee shop, steak house and a bar. The sushi chef Taishi Yamaguchi, who worked at EN Japanese Brasserie, is featuring temaki hand rolls, made to order with fillings like grilled oysters, Australian Wagyu and Okinawan sweet potato, and imported Japanese rice from the Rice Factory in Westchester County. Small plates like spicy cucumbers with shredded kombu are also served at a 13-seat sushi bar and tables. (Monday)
Knickerbocker Hotel, 6 Times Square (42nd Street and Broadway), 212-204-5787, theknickerbocker.com.
Closed
Kancil
The restaurateur Salil Mehta’s Upper West Side collaboration with the Malaysian chef Simpson Wong has closed after a five-month run. Mr. Mehta cited the cost of doing business as the reason.
