GREEK CHIC Anthos (36 W. 52nd St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-582-6900) will open this Monday, serving creative, high-end Greek food. The restaurant, where Acqua Pazza was until recently, is a joint venture of restaurateur Donatella Arpaiaand chef Michael Psilakis, the team behind the recently shuttered Dona. The cuisine and service style are expected to combine Dona and Onera, Mr. Psilakis’s Upper West Side restaurant. It served “interpretive Greek food” until he remade it into a more casual, traditional Greek restaurant, Kefi.

Although Anthos’s food will not be traditional, Mr. Psilakis said the flavors of all of the dishes would be recognizable as Greek by his immigrant mother.

ARBOR DAYS Tree (190 First Ave., between 11th and 12th streets, 212-358-7171) is open, serving moderately priced food in a downtown, exposed-brick setting designed and renovated by partners Colm Clancy and Andrew Robinson.

Mr. Robinson, the chef, is a Lower East Side native who started cooking at the age of 11 by helping his working mother make dinner. He later worked in delis, Long Island Italian eateries, a Hard Rock Cafe, and, after studying at the French Culinary Institute, at Gramercy Tavern, where he was a line cook. He later taught at FCI before opening Tree.

Tree’s menu has some traditional French items, such as steak au poivre ($26) and cassoulet ($16), but most of the dishes have American twists and flourishes from the Mediterranean. An example is his rack of lamb, which is mostly French, but is served with Italian farro and, showing American innovation, mint pistou ($25).

The restaurant is small for now at 35 seats, but renovation of the backyard garden is under way and the partners hope to seat 50 people there among the trees, which give the restaurant its name.

Tree starts serving brunch this Sunday.

GASTROGRUB A restaurant and bar named Alchemy (56 Fifth Ave., between Bergen and St. Mark’s streets, Brooklyn, 718-636-4385) has opened in Park Slope, sort of: It might be the only gastropub on earth without a liquor license.

That final bit of paperwork is pending. Until then it is BYO, although the staff will brew up coffee on request. The chef, Jared King, was a sous chef at Peacock Alley at the Waldorf-Astoria. The standard bar snack is fried chickpeas.

PASTRY MOVE The Mandarin Oriental hotel (80 Columbus Circle at 60th Street, 212-805-8800) has a new executive pastry chef. Paul Nolan was at the “21” Club for eight years before taking up his new job. The Dublin native also has worked in the pastry kitchens of Le Bernardin, 5757 at the Four Seasons hotel, and the Pierre hotel.

JAPANESE RESTAURANT WEEK Japanese and Japanese-inspired restaurants are teaming up for New York’s first Japanese restaurant week, which starts Sunday. Participating restaurants will offer specialty items, prix-fixe menus, and other goodies. For a full list of restaurants and what they are doing, visit www.jprw.net.

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