SEAFOOD SPOT Ditch Plains (29 Bedford St. a t Do wning Street, 212-633-0202), which opened Monday, is serving up East Coast oysters and classic fish dishes. The restaurant’s chef de cuisine, Frank Proto, calls it “a New York oyster bar and fish shack.”

“We also have a chicken pot pie for people who don’t eat fish,” says Mr. Proto, who also is chef de cuisine at Ditch Plains’s big sister, Landmarc. Both restaurants are owned by Marc Murphy and Pamela Schein Murphy.

Other non-fish items at Ditch Plains – which is named after the Montauk, N.Y., surf spot – include chicken liver mousse, and a basket of cured meats served with cornichons, mustard, and country bread. Creative seafood on the menu include shrimp escabeche – poached shrimp marinated with lemon, lime, orange juices, red onions, mint, parsley, chile flakes, and extra virgin olive oil, tossed with romaine, radicchio, and citrus segments. Mr. Proto’s lobster roll is served on a nontraditional potato roll and is spiked with garlic and Dijon mustard.

FRESH FROM BRAZIL Buzina Pop (1022A Lexington Ave. at 73rd Street, 212-879-6190) opened on Friday. Its executive chef, Adriano Suppa Ricco, hails from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where churrascarias got their start. At the new Upper East Side eatery he is using Brazilian ingredients in dishes of his own invention. He seems to have a particular affinity for pupunha, or fresh hearts of palm. He slices them thinly, calls them carpaccio, and serves them with sauteed scallops, micro arugula, nori, and a honey-mustard vinaigrette. Serving them in thin strands, he calls them capellini and tosses them with cilantro and sorrel to accompany sea bass ceviche. Pupunha “fettuccine” comes with cherry tomatoes, basil, and peppers.

He’s also baking it and serving it with lamb shank.

Pastry chef Karin Ludewigs is serving avocado mousse with cocoa nibs, and crispy tapioca cake in chocolate sauce with coconut-wasabi sorbet.

Buzina Pop is owned by French restaurateur Patrick Laurent and his wife, Stephanie Monserrat-Laurent.

CLEVELAND CHIC Pareia (36 E. 20th St., between Park Avenue South and Broadway, 212-777-8448) opens tomorrow. If you have been to Cleveland, you might have had chef Michael Symon’s food at Lola. If you watch the Food Network, you might have seen him on “Melting Pot.” If you were reading Food & Wine in 1998 and have a very good memory, you might recall that the magazine named him one of the country’s 10 Best New Chefs that year.

Starting tomorrow, you can sample his Greek-inspired food, including lobster-stuffed grape leaves and pickled octopus. Pareia’s menu also has a lot of lamb, including brain, sweetbread, cured leg, salami, and pickled tongue.

WORTH THE WAIT Allison Vines-Rushing, who won the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef Award two years ago when she was chef of Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar, has a new restaurant serving takeout rotisserie and fried chicken as well various Southern sides. Despite the name, Dirty Bird to Go (204 W. 14th St. at Seventh Avenue, 212-620-4836), is drawing crowds. In this venture, which also delivers to Chelsea, the West Village, and the meatpacking district, Ms. Vines-Rushing and her husband, Slade Rushing, have teamed up with Joseph Ciriello, who was managing partner and wine director of Chez es Saada before becoming a wine importer. It was in that capacity that he met the owners of Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar.

Ms.Vines-Rushing and Mr. Rushing live in Louisiana, where they run Longbranch restaurant. They plan to visit their New York restaurant about twice a month. Mr. Ciriello is holding down the fort the rest of the time.

Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. He can be reached at bthorn@nrn.com.