SWEET TO SAVORY

Pastry chef Will Goldfarb, of the recently shuttered avant garde restaurant Room 4 Dessert, opened Picknick in a Battery Park City kiosk over the weekend. Picnick is selling sandwiches, starting at $6.95 (varieties include prosciutto, Taleggio cheese, and local arugula), and salads starting at $7.95. He is also selling desserts, such as chocolate chip cookies ($1.95) and pistachio panna cotta ($3.95).

TAILOR MADE

Another Room 4 Dessert veteran, Pam Yung, is the latest and fifth member of the kitchen team at Tailor (525 Broome St., between Sullivan and Thompson streets, 212-334-5182). The long-anticipated restaurant of Sam Mason, who was pastry chef under Wylie Dufresne at WD-50, Paul Liebrandt at Atlas, and Timothy Dean at Palladin, opened to the public yesterday after a delay of several months.

Mr. Mason said the delay was due to his not wanting to open the restaurant until he was confident his team was ready.

The menu has six savory and six sweet items, at least some of which will change every few weeks. One dish that was a hit during previews was a seared and slow-cooked pork belly with miso butterscotch and artichoke hearts braised in bacon, whiskey, and apple cider. Another is a terrine of foie gras and peanut butter, cut into bars and sprayed with chocolate.

“It’s kind of like a really bizarre version of the Reese’s peanut butter cups commercial,” Mr. Mason said.

Also in the kitchen are Francis Derby, Amador Acosta, and Ryan Bartlow.

MAYOR-APPROVED

Fairway now has its own chef de cuisine. Mitchel London, a former chef for Mayor Koch, is now in charge of all the prepared foods and baked goods at the supermarket, and the café and steakhouse at the store’s Upper West Side location (2127 Broadway, between 74th and 75th streets, 212-595-1888).

SHAKE IT UP

Cocktail expert Jim Meehan is no longer at Gramercy Tavern (42 E. 20th St., between Park Avenue South and Broadway, 212-477-0777). But he is still tending bar at Pegu Club (77 W. Houston St., between West Broadway and Wooster Street, 212-473-7348), and continues to be beverage director of PDT (113 St. Marks Place, between First Avenue and Avenue A, 212-614-0386). At the moment, he is in Spain, touring Jerez and presumably learning about sherry.

HELPING HAND

Mercadito (179 Avenue B, between 11th and 12th streets, 212-529-6490, and 100 Seventh Ave. South at Grove Street, 212-647-0830) has set up a fund on behalf of its staff members who were victims of a traffic accident in late August. Antonio Barranco Hernandez was killed, and Luis Romero and Augusto Bravo were seriously injured. Donations on behalf of the victims can be sent to the West Village Accident Fund, 332 Bleecker St., F 38, New York, N.Y. 10014.

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