VARIETAL 2.0 Following mediocre reviews, executive chef Ed Witt and pastry chef Jordan Kahn have left Varietal (38 W. 25th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-633-1800). Wayne Nish, who also is chef-owner of Nish, is the new executive chef. He is overseeing the work of chef de cuisine Scott Riesenberger, who was a sous chef at Gilt under that restaurant’s former executive chef, Paul Liebrandt. Messrs. Nish and Riesenberger also will be handling all pastry preparation at the restaurant.

Varietal’s owners say Mr. Nish’s menu will be in place this Friday.

A NEW SEASON Even if you are not in the mood for a meal at l’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, you still might have a reason to eat at the Four Seasons Hotel (57 E. 57th St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-758-5700). Lynn Crawford is the new executive chef there, responsible for operations at 47 Restaurant, TY Lounge, and the Bar, as well as all room service and banquets.

Ms. Crawford was the hotel’s executive sous chef between 1997 and 2002. Since then, she has been executive chef of the Four Seasons in her hometown, Toronto.

She has spent 18 years working for the Four Seasons group, but she also spent time in California and counts among her mentors Alice Waters — an early proponent of seasonal, local ingredients — and Barbara Tropp, who helped expand Bay Area diners’ knowledge of Chinese food.

Menu items at 57 Restaurant include gingered Dungeness crab broth with seared sea scallop, water chestnuts and caviar, rare sesame ahi tuna and beef cheeks with daube jus and Seville orange gremolata, and artichoke and spring vegetable bouillabaisse with goat cheese beignet and Meyer lemon broth.

CENTRAL PERKS Central Kitchen brasserie (134 Seventh Avenue South, between West 10th and Charles streets, 212-352-2230) opened for previews last Thursday. Chef Craig Wilson is offering a 10% discount on menu items through this Sunday. Those include pizzette, sandwiches of suckling pig and banh mi, seared lamb chops with spinach gnocchi and babaghanouj, and shrimp with roasted shallot in yellow curry broth.

KARAOKE & COMFORT FOOD Do you enjoy singing karaoke but just wish you had a larger audience, backup singers, and a JumboTron that would broadcast your performance onto Times Square? Starting this Friday, you can have just that at Spotlight Live (1604 Broadway, between 48th and 49th streets, 212-262-1111). The restaurant and live performance venue opens on Friday where Noche once stood. Would-be performers are prepped in a green room and then put onstage with backup singers, who will turn up their own volumes should the temporary stars suddenly turn faint-hearted.

The food is the work of Las Vegas celebrity chef Kerry Simon and is mostly comfort food such as pigs in blankets, house-made potato chips with French onion dip, and spaghetti and meatballs. The dessert menu includes cotton candy and “Sno Cones.”

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