Kitchen Dish
NEW FROM MCNALLY Morandi (211 Waverly Pl. at Charles Street, 212-627-7575) opens officially tonight. This Italian restaurant is the latest brainchild of Keith McNally, who also owns Balthazar, Pastis, Schiller's Liquor Bar, and Pravda. Menu items range from straightforward spaghetti in clam sauce ($12), to traditional Tuscan ribollita soup ($9) and Piedmontese bagna cauda ($5), to rabbit roasted in seasoned pork fat with fennel pollen ($23). Reservations likely will be hard to come by.
TACO & FALAFEL Williamsburg Mexican restaurant Taco Chulo now has a Middle Eastern sister under the same ownership. Dija Amer and Greta Dana have opened Falafel Chulo (436 Union Ave., between Metropolitan and Devoe avenues, Brooklyn, 718-387-0303). The emphasis is on Egyptian food, including Ms. Amer's family recipe for falafel, which uses fava beans instead of the usual chickpeas.
DREAM DINNER Amalia is slated to open tomorrow at the Dream Hotel (204 W. 55th St., between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, 212-245-1234). The chef is Ivy Stark, who was formerly corporate chef for Rosa Mexicano. The pastry chef is John Miele, formerly of Aureole, and the sous chef is 5 Ninth alumnus Mary Ellen Heavner.
Ms. Stark describes the food at the restaurant as fresh and ingredient-driven food with many Mediterranean ingredients and some Mediterranean style, "without being too earthy or rustic, but not precious or formal either."
An example of the cuisine is a lamb osso buco with risotto-style barley, harissa, and tangerine gremolata. The osso buco itself is traditional Italian, but using barley instead of rice, and tangerine instead of more traditional lemon zest, shows American innovation, while the spicy harissa adds a North African touch. Ms. Stark is also offering an appetizer of calamari sautéed with hot Spanish chorizo, piquillo peppers, white beans, and roasted garlic, mixed with grilled bread and crispy fried calamari.
"I think the contrast in the texture is really nice," she says.
NEW AT AUREOLE Tony Aiazzi, former corporate chef for the Charlie Palmer Group, is executive chef of that group's flagship restaurant, Aureole (34 E. 61st St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-319-1660), replacing Dante Bocuzzi, who left to open a restaurant of his own in Cleveland.
Mr. Aiazzi has worked with Mr. Palmer for the past eight years. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and interned at Lucas Carton in Paris under chef Alain Senderens.
CLOSED Honmura An (170 Mercer St., between Houston and Prince streets) closed permanently on February 17.
Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation's Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com.
