A Naples Institution, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Opens in the West Village
Headliner
L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele
Growing up in Naples, Italy, Francesco Zimone often had pizza with his father at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, founded in 1870. Four years ago, following a career in finance and residential renovation, he obtained the rights to open a branch in Hollywood, Calif., and another in Santa Barbara. Now, he’s opening one in New York. With a big, glassed-in open kitchen in a spacious rear dining room, the place is more restaurant than pizzeria. “A pizzeria doesn’t have to be a joint,” Mr. Zimone said. His is clearly not. It has a barroom in front, with a separate counter for salumi and cheeses, and a brick-walled main dining room beyond. Tables are roomy to accommodate the 16-inch Neapolitan-style pies with their typically flavorful thin crusts and puffy, char-tattooed edge. Here, they’re also made with imported Italian ingredients like flour, San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. (Mr. Zimone’s partner and head pizzaolo, Michele Rubini, is a fifth-generation member of the original pizzeria family.) In addition to pizza, there are antipasti, including gnocco fritto and montanarine made with fried pizza dough; salads; sandwiches (with a burger to come); a few pastas; and main courses. He said everything is made in house. In a few weeks, he plans to open a more-intimate Taverna downstairs for dining and private parties. After looking at many possible locations, he selected this one in the West Village, even though it required extensive renovation. “The streets reminded me of parts of Napoli and Trastevere,” he said. “It felt like home.”
2 Bank Street (Greenwich Avenue), 929-524-6682, damicheleusa.com.
Opening
Tortazo – Times Square
This is the second edition of the marquee chef and cookbook author Rick Bayless’s casual Mexican spot. Tortas, including an eggplant milanesa, are a specialty, along with antojitos like smoked salmon ceviche, quesadillas and tacos. Agave spirits are poured. The dining area, framed with vibrant murals and furnished with a communal table and woven banquettes, seats 60. Takeout and delivery are available. A window open to the street offers freshly fried churros and hot chocolate. (Opens Thursday)
1441 Broadway (41st Street),tortazo.com.
Avocaderia
This casual avocado-centric spot, which made its debut in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in 2017 and added branches in Chelsea and Midtown East, is now opening its flagship in NoMad. Owned by Alessandro Biggi and Francesco Brachetti, it’s on two floors with takeout and dine-in options for bowls, sandwiches and salads.
245 Fifth Avenue (28th Street), 929-447-5488,avocaderia.com.
Tangram
This mega-development in Flushing, Queens, combining retail, residential, office and hotel spaces, has added a 24,000-square-foot food hall to its collection of dining venues, which include Xi’an Famous Foods, Xiao Long Kan Hot Pot and Ju Qi. Now in the food hall, there are Joju, CrunCheese, Qing Shu and Soft Swerve, with more, including Zaab Zaab and Café Maiko, coming soon.
133-33 39th Avenue (College Point Boulevard), Flushing, Queens, tangramnyc.com.
Metro Marché
This sibling to Café Metro and Fresh & Co. has opened in a location that has housed several eat-in and takeout places over the years.
30 West 57th Street, 212-697-3334, metromarche.com.
Sullivan Street Bakery
After a disastrous flood and freeze on Nov. 18 shut down Jim Lahey’s Midtown bakery, cleanup has been completed, and the space is up and running again.
533 West 47th Street, 212-265-5580, sullivanstreetbakery.com.
Lunar New Year
There are new options among the many special menus featured at Asian restaurants for the celebration, which starts on Sunday. The lavish 53 Restaurant will hold its first Lunar New Year dinner on Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. with a 12-course banquet for $153 per person, which includes oysters with uni, lobster spring rolls, eel with foie gras, clay pot and wok-fried choices, and desserts. And from Jan. 20 to 22, from 8 p.m. while supplies last, Dominique Ansel will sell French-style shaobing pork belly sandwiches, which he’s making in collaboration with Eric Sze of 886, a Taiwanese restaurant in the East Village. The French angle comes from the French butter and flour and the technique Mr. Ansel is using for the typical flaky sesame-seed flatbreads. The sandwich is $22 with a peanut rice milk latte.
53 Restaurant, 53 West 53rd Street, 646-535-3994, 53-nyc.com. Dominque Ansel Workshop, 17 East 27th Street, dominiqueanselworkshop.com.
Looking Ahead
Ma•Dé
In a few weeks, Cédric Vongerichten and his wife and partner, Ochi Latjuba Vongerichten, plan to open this 25-seat spot, next to their Indonesian restaurant Wayan. Ezra J. William, an Indonesian celebrity, is a partner. Seafood and vegetables will dominate a menu that draws inspiration from across the world. The restaurant’s name means second-born in Balinese; Wayan means firstborn.
22 Spring Street (Elizabeth Street).
Delmonico’s
This venerable financial district steakhouse, which closed in early 2020 as a result of the pandemic, will reopen this fall. Dennis Turcinovic, an owner of the Delmonico’s Restaurant Group, and his partner, Joseph Licul, are planning a redesign that, while more modern, will also retain the atmosphere of the original, dating from 1837. It will seat 500 in a space that includes five private dining rooms. A new executive chef will be named in the fall. Mr. Turcinovic plans new menu items, along with updated versions of classics like eggs Benedict, lobster Newberg, baked Alaska and Delmonico steak.
56 Beaver Street (William Street).
Anto
In about a month, the townhouse that housed Felidia since 1981 will become a traditional Korean restaurant owned by Tony Park, the restaurateur behind Antoya and others, with Imsub Lee, a Seoul native, as executive chef.
243 East 58th Street (Second Avenue).
Sempre Oggi
Robert Guarino and Simon Oren have taken over the Upper West Side space that was ‘Cesca and plan to open a seasonal Italian restaurant that nods toward California, in early fall.
164 West 75th Street.
150-Day Dry-Aged Rib-Eye Dinner at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats
When Jake Dickson announced he’d be serving this family-style feast at his market restaurant, he might have made the connection between what he was doing and the old New York tradition of the Beefsteak dinner. Starting in the mid-19th century, these meat dinners for only men were served without flatware and with cascades of beer. Mr. Dickson’s event, March 3 at 8 p.m., will feature the rib-eye steaks, aged for 150 days, as part of a six-course meal with beef fat potatoes, steak tartare, rib cap sliders, dessert, and an open bar for beer, wine, sake and dessert wine, $200 per person (including flatware) for groups of four to six and 10 to 12.
Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Avenue (15th Street), 212-242-2630, dicksonsfarmstand.com.
Michelin New York
The Michelin guides periodically announce new additions in various cities and regions, all with the potential for star (or at least Bib Gourmand) ratings. In Manhattan this month, the guides added C as in Charlie, Lord’s, Shmoné, Claud, Coco Shack, Ipanema, Le Rock, 53, Joji and Koloman. In Brooklyn, KRU, a Williamsburg restaurant, was added, and Westchester County gained three: Augustine’s Salumeria in Mamaroneck, Town House in New Rochelle, and La Crémaillère in Bedford, a venerable country French establishment, which originally opened in 1961 and reopened with new management and a new chef last year.
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