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Wokuni, From Japan, Opens in Murray Hill
Headliner
WOKUNI Another Japanese import, this one from Tokyo Ichiban Foods, a company that has about 50 restaurants in Japan, features izakaya fare that’s more polished than usual. The menu lists dishes, some fairly uncommon, in a slew of categories, like cold items that include baby sardines with grated daikon, steamed monkfish liver with ponzu sauce, and cold udon with tempura. Hot dishes, appetizer-style, include chawan mushi, and miso-glazed eggplant with seafood, with more substantial portions for items like tuna tail steak. Fried dishes, kushiyaki skewers, plus sushi, sashimi, rolls, salads, soup and desserts round out the menu. All served in a subdued and elegant setting decorated with handmade ceramic tiles. The chain has its own aquaculture facility for bluefin tuna and king yellowtail, which it flies in to its restaurants daily, including now to New York. But unlike the places in Japan, which are simpler izakayas, this branch has a retail counter where soon, these fish and other seasonal varieties will be sold; for now, handmade Japanese tableware is available. (Wednesday): 325 Lexington Avenue (39th Street), 212-447-1212, wokuninyc.com.
Openings
CHARLIE PALMER STEAK A branch of this restaurant is now among the dining options in Madison Square Garden. It features a five-ounce New York strip served on a brioche bun with caramelized onions and steak sauce. Some dishes are also listed on suite and club menus: SAP Madison Concourse, Madison Square Garden, charliepalmer.com.
O PEDRO Floyd Cardoz, who owns Paowalla in SoHo, has added this restaurant in Mumbai, India, to his portfolio. He is already an owner of the Bombay Canteen in that city. The new restaurant, with partners and the executive chef Hussain Shahzad, who worked at Eleven Madison Park, running the kitchen, has the Portuguese influence of Goa: Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra-East, Mumbai, India, 22-265-34700, opedromumbai.com.
GRAND REPUBLIC COCKTAIL CLUB This new bar, nudging the Brooklyn waterfront’s ferry dock, is named for a large wooden freight ship that anchored there more than 100 years ago. The owners Johnny Swet, who has consulted on the drinks at the baroque new Oscar Wilde bar in NoMad, and Benoit Sutter focus on drinks based on tradition as well as innovation, inventively mixing some local nonalcoholic products. If you’re looking for food, you won’t find it here, though a number of cocktails — a chicken and waffle Sazerac made with a flavored syrup, or the Smoke Over Brooklyn, using mezcal and Mast Brothers smoked chocolate — might keep hunger at bay. The space is replete with vintage details, and there’s a patch of weedy garden in back: 19 Greenpoint Avenue (West Street), Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 347-689-3860, grandrepubliccocktailclub.com.
Chefs on the Move
JOHN VILLA has become the chef for the Treadwell Park restaurants on the Upper East Side and in Battery Park.
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