Every month in New York, there are a bewildering number of new dishes to eat, drinks to imbibe, and food-themed events to attend. Often, the hardest part is just figuring out what’s really worth your limited time. So Grub Street kicks off each month with a curated selection of dishes, drinks, and events that should absolutely be on your agenda. Make your plans now.
1. Finally have dinner again at Chaiwali, now reopened in Harlem.
Harlem’s Chaiwali and its vindaloo lamb chops received enthusiastic praise from New York’s Adam Platt and a review from the New York Times before temporarily closing in January 2018. What was only supposed to last four or five weeks lasted much longer, and as the weeks stretched to months it became reasonable to wonder if you’d get to eat those lamb chops again. Well, here’s some good news to start the year for all you Harlem achari heads: Chaiwali is back in business, having reopened on December 20. Chef-owner Anita Trehan’s cooking is still just as eclectic, and you’ll find appetizers like the straight-up “just samosa” ($12) alongside kaal avocado chaat salad ($12) and okra pakoras ($13), plus mains and sides like mirchi mumbai prawns ($29) and lemon poha ($9.50), and desserts including Alice’s rum pudding with biscuit caramel and espresso cream ($13.50).
2. Head to Stephen Starr’s newest restaurant.
’Tis the season for chicken Kiev. The butter-stuffed, breaded chicken filet is on the menu at restless restaurateur Stephen Starr’s new Verōnika at Fotografiska, which opens on January 3 in the New York location of the Stockholm-based photography museum. Inspired by everything from Viennese cafés to Parisian brasseries, the menu runs the gamut from consomme nana with parmesan zwieback to lamb goulash with buttermilk spaetzle to salmon coulibiac with mushroom-dill duxelles.
3. Check out a new, no-frills diner in Brooklyn.
If New York City could make a New Year’s resolution, Grub would ask for it to be to continue the diner revival apace. Along with the opening of the 24-hour Soho Diner in December, New York got a notable new diner in Rosalu. The diner quietly opened in November, but it has pedigree. The owner is Matthew Hamilton, who you may remember from Lulu & Po, a Fort Greene favorite and a place New York’s Underground Gourmet called “a lovely little restaurant” before it closed in 2017. Like Soho Diner, Rosalu isn’t reinventing the diner wheel, Hamilton just seems to be trying to fine-tune. At the restaurant, there’s plenty of classic diner dishes like a French omelet ($14), steel-cut oats with dates and cream ($8), a turkey Club sandwich ($14), and milkshakes. Hamilton doesn’t stray too far, but you’ll find some less typical diner dishes like a bacon-wrapped Tijuana hot dog with fries ($14 for two hot dogs) and shrimp and grits ($16). And, yes, there’s bottomless coffee ($3).
4. Book your next uptown omakase dinner.
Sushi chef Don Pham is crossing Central Park on January 15. He’s bringing his popular, 24-seat Upper East Side restaurant Sushi Ishikawa to West 80th Street on the Upper West Side, where he’ll serve a 15-course ($125) and 16-seat course ($155) menu. Expect dishes like lobster shiso, grilled lobster with lobster miso and ikura shiso leaf tempura, and Hokkaido sea scallop with cod fish milt tempura and uni, and uni miso sauce. Dinner is definitely not cheap, but it’s a much more affordable option than, say, Masa down at Columbus Circle.
5. Drink Singapore Slings and roti for brunch in Gramercy.
Gramercy’s Laut Singapura has added cocktails (all $15) to its repertoire including the Singapore Sling, the gin and Cherry Heering classic, as well as riffs including the Black Old-Fashioned. On weekends, they’ll introduce breakfast favorites from Singapore, like roti gala with curry chicken ($15, comes with beer or wine) and nasi lemak ($25, comes with beer or wine), and spins on American dishes, such as the chicken with a Hong Kong bubble waffle and kayak jam ($25).
6. Check out a new Roman pasta happy hour.
Brooklyn’s Popina will start off the decade by introducing as pasta (and more) happy hour. From 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays (starting January 5), the restaurant will offer four classic Roman pastas for $15, including cacio e pepe, carbonara, amatriciana, and gricia. None of these, it’s worth noting, are fixtures on the regular menu. To go with the discount carbs, they’ll also pour $5 glasses of prosecco, Frascati, and Montepulciano wines; a weekly $10 boilermaker (first up is Burial Hawskill IPA and Four Roses bourbon); and a $7 Americano made with Forthave Red, sweet vermouth, soda, and an orange twist.[…]