Contents
Off the Menu
Alex Stupak serves New England fare at the Otter and Sloane’s, Bridges pulls from the larder of Europe and North America, and more restaurant news.
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Opening
YongChuan
Ningbo, a port city south of Shanghai, is known for seafood, often steamed, with a particular penchant for yellow croaker and crab. Tony Li, the chef who owns this new spot, is from that city. Ningbo dishes by the executive chef Xing Zhong Qi and his chef de cuisine, De Qin Zhang, include pork patty, steamed wild yellow croaker and Ningbo 18 Cuts, a wild imported sea crab in 18 pieces to pre-order. These are juxtaposed with hot Sichuan fare like mapo tofu, spicy soft shell crab and spicy squid tentacles.
90 Clinton Street (Rivington Street), 646-609-6324, yongchuannyc.com.
The Otter and Sloane’s
The chef Alex Stupak is best known for Mexican restaurants like Empellón. But now he’s drawing on his New England childhood for raw bar assortments and classics, like fish and chips and a lobster roll, in this dining room in a SoHo hotel. (So expect breakfast, lunch and dinner.) But he is also serving less expected fare like scallop crudo served in the shell and divided between red and green chile sauces, a Mexican touch after all; salt-roasted prawns; and swordfish au poivre; less expected fare like parsley root agnolotti with buttered crab meat; along with a burger and a steak with crawfish béarnaise. His food also shows up at the hotel’s plush new upstairs lounge, Sloane’s.
The Manner, 58 Thompson Street (Broome Street), 929-651-5330, theotter.nyc.
Bridges
Occasionally some plum vinegar, duck and daikon wanders onto the menu of this intimate restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. But otherwise, the chef and partner, Sam Lawrence, a former executive chef at Estela and culinary director for the Mattos Group, looks to France, the Basque region and North America for his larder. His creative bent shows in dishes sea urchin custard with shrimp; smoked eel dumplings with Tuscan kale; Comté tart with chanterelles; grilled sweetbreads with leeks and mustard; and steamed turbot with clams and spinach. Nicolas Mouchel, the co-owner who was at NoMad, runs the show with the chef. (Opens Wednesday)
9-10 Chatham Square (Division Street), bridges-nyc.com
Upside Down Luncheonette
On Fridays and weekends through Nov. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Figure Eight, the Southern seafood nook from Emmeline Zhao and her partners, serves diner fare touched ever so lightly with Asian influences. A burger on a bolo bao bun, and tomato and stone fruit salad seasoned with chile oil are some examples.
18 Cornelia Street (Bleecker Street), no phone, figureeight.nyc.
Breakfast at Four Twenty Five
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