Kitchen Dish

By BRET THORN | August 22, 2007

CRUNCHY

Chef Josh DeChellis, formerly of Sumile Sushi and Jovia, opens his tempura bar today. BarFry (50 Carmine St., between Bedford and Bleecker streets, 212-929-5050) features Japan's stirfried specialty taken out of its formal Japanese context. Promises of beef beignets and an array of batter-fried seafood and vegetables abound. Signature beer, sake, and cocktails will be on hand, too.

TEA PARTY

Sanctuary T (337B W. Broadway at Grand Street, 212-941-7832) opened Monday. On the menu at this 40-seat space are 60 teas and infusions. Chef Kevin Stanton is also serving pastries, soups, salads, and sandwiches at lunch. For dinner, the focus is on $14–$20 small plates, many with tea as an ingredient. Those include king salmon cooked in strawberry tea with cucumber relish, wax beans, and Kaffir lime sauce; halibut slowly cooked in lychee black tea and served with grilled asparagus, feta cheese, saffron sauce, and coconut, and gnocchi cooked in brown butter with jasmine tea.

ECLECTIC

Chef Julian Medina, the former executive chef of Zocalo, opens Toloache (251 W. 50th St, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, 212-581-1818) tomorrow. The restaurant will feature a ceviche and guacamole bar and will serve more than 100 tequilas and mezcals. The food will be Mr. Medina's own interpretation of contemporary Mexican fare, which — like contemporary American food — borrows freely from various world cuisines. He will be stuffing churros with foie gras to be dipped in mole, and will also serve roast suckling pig with habañero-sour orange salsa and a salad of cactus, avocado, and pork cracklings. Tacos will be filled with everything from sweetbreads to dried grasshopper, as well as steak and fish.

NAMASTE, NEW YORK

Restaurateur Shiva Natarajan, who owns Chola on East 58th Street, has quietly opened Tadka (229 E. 53rd St., between Second and Third avenues, 212-355-9660), serving a wide variety of Indian dishes priced between $3.50 and $17.95.

PARIS MATCH

It is easy to find a restaurant at which to linger over brunch on weekend afternoons. On Tuesdays, it's not so easy. But Paris Commune (99 Bank St. at Greenwich St., 212-929-0509) is filling that gap by opening for brunch between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. every day. Eggs and omelets are available, along with soups and salads, moules frites, and breakfast items including hot gingerbread with whipped cream, and Scottish oatmeal with seasonal fruit.

Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation's Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com.