Kitchen Dish
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
TOP (KOSHER) CHEF Hung Huynh, a winner on the Bravo TV show “Top Chef,” is now trying his hand at kosher food at Solo (550 Madison Ave. at 55th Street, 212-833-7800), where he is working under a month-long contract through the end of March.
Solo is known for serving more avant-garde cuisine. Currently on the menu are sweetbreads with truffle sauce and citrus-honey carrots, and spicy seared tuna with tomato vinaigrette, hearts of palm, and pickled onion.
VEGGIE DELIGHT Broadway East (171 East Broadway, between Rutgers and Jefferson streets, across from Seward Park, 212-228-3100) is open and serving the mostly vegetarian food of chef Lee Gross, as well as a wine list focused on New York state. Mr. Gross, who was actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s personal chef for three years, is dishing up items such as oyster mushroom chowder, chickpea and butternut b’steeya, and Peking-style snow-dried tofu.
SPICY THAI Chef-restaurateur Andy Yang and his business partner Erik Cheah have opened. Rhong-Tiam (541 La Guardia Pl., between Bleecker and 3rd streets, 212-477-0600), serving the food of Bangkok, plus some specialties from Southern Thailand, where even many Thais from elsewhere in the country find the food too spicy for words.
BRASSERIE TO BEDFORD FALLS Chef Franklin Becker has left Brasserie (100 E. 53rd St. at Park Avenue, 212-751-4840) to pursue a venture of his own called Bedford Falls.” The restaurant will feature classic dishes as well as Mr. Becker’s own riffs on those dishes. The chef said he is currently negotiating leases.
NEWLY CASUAL Le Cirque (151 E. 58th St., between Lexington and Third avenues, 212-644-0202) has changed part of its restaurant into a no-jacket-required wine bar. Casual fare on the menu there, priced between $14 and $27, includes a Croque Monsieur, mini cheeseburgers, shrimp tempura, and spicy calamari.
FROZEN DESSERT Yogo Monster (88 Seventh Ave., between Union Street and Berkeley Place, Brooklyn) in Park Slope is serving plain and blueberry yogurt topped with a choice of fruit or various crunchy and sweet toppings.
Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com.
