LO COUNTRY Usually when eating at a barbecue joint, your beverage options do not include a $150 bottle of non-vintage Ruinart Blanc de Blancs Champagne. But that’s on the list at Bar Q (308–310 Bleecker St., between Grove and Barrow streets, 212-206-7818), Anita Lo’s new spot, which had its soft opening on Monday.

Ms. Lo, the chef of Annisa and Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, is serving grilled tuna ribs with yuzu kosho, the Japanese version of lemon pepper, and Seoul-style grilled short ribs with scallion pancakes. The restaurant also features a raw bar with sashimi. Wine ranges from a $25 Argentine Torrontes to that Ruinart Champagne.

IN LEVER, VERITAS Fans of Dan Silverman’s food at Lever House (390 Park Ave. at 53rd Street, 212-888-2700) have just a few weeks left to enjoy it. He is being replaced by Scott Bryan, former chef of Veritas.

NEW STEAK IN LIFE Brian O’Donohoe has been promoted to executive chef of Primehouse New York (381 Park Ave. S. at 27th Street, 212-824-2600), replacing Jason Miller. Mr. O’Donohoe, who had been the restaurant’s executive sous chef since it opened last fall, was brought to the B. R. Guest restaurant group, which owns Primehouse, by Le Bernardin chef and owner Eric Ripert, who consulted on the group’s short-lived, mostly-tapas restaurant Barça 18.

Mr. O’Donohoe has been running Primehouse’s fish station since the restaurant opened. Now he plans to modernize the rest of the menu one section at a time, first with small tweaks such as adding seasonal produce to mixed-green salads.

“To me, the steaks very much speak for themselves,” he said, so he will leave that section alone.

FIVE STAGES Meatpacking district institution Florent (69 Gansevoort St. at Washington Street, 212-989-5779) will close on June 29 as its lease expires, but it will do so with a five-week bang, with its theme changing each week based on the five Kübler-Ross stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Details are still developing.

Another institution, Cheyenne Diner (4ll Ninth Ave. at 33rd Street), closed over the weekend to make way for a nine-story residential building planned by the landlord George Papas, who owns Skylight Diner, a block away.

ROCKING RIBS Southern Hospitality (1460 Second Ave. at 76th Street, 212-249-1001), Justin Timberlake’s barbecue restaurant, has named cookbook writer and barbecue cook-off competitor Ray Lampe, who calls himself “Dr. BBQ,” as executive chef. His first addition to the restaurant is “Burnt End” Tuesdays, featuring end cuts of beef brisket.

TOP BILLING Mai House (186 Franklin St., between Greenwich and Hudson streets, 212-431-0606), in celebration of its television star, Spike Mendelsohn, is offering a $59, five-course tasting menu based on the food he cooked on Bravo’s “Top Chef” program. The menu, available for the duration of the season, includes basa rolls with avocado, spicy beef and pomelo with rau ram, and a choice of coconut flan with passion fruit or Kaffir lime chocolate mousse.

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