The West Village

[Nathan]

my proposition is that THE neighborhood for new NY restaurants, is now the WV.

Ssam Bar is obvious, but after that nothing of great interest has opened in the EV in the last year or so (E.U. and Belcourt are nothing special, Graffiti's impact is limited by its tiny size).

the development of the LES continues apace, but its most notable openings are in the past -- Allen & Delancey is good, Rayuela ok and Barcaro tbd....

as has happened every year since time began, there's the opening or two on the UWS that's supposed to make it relevant in dining terms...but....

the UES continues to be the UES.

NoLIta continued to open wine bars...some with major ambition (the Monday Room), but the Tasting Room fell kind of flat...

midtown continues to be midtown. a couple openings from major names...with varying results. none with the excitement of the TWC openings of a couple years ago.

SoHo's only major opening was Tailor....a restaurant capable of great things...if perhaps letting the pre-opening publicity raise expectations too high. still, after Ssam Bar, it was the opening of the last year or so.

Union Square/Gramercy/Flatiron saw the revitalization of several distinguished restaurants, as well as an assortment of minor, if pleasurable openings.

Chelsea continued to be Chelsea.

HK continued to gentrify.

Brooklyn Heights continued to morph into Murray Hill South.

Park Slope continued to make its claim as the dining center of Brooklyn, albeit without a tentpole restaurant.

the hipsters were priced out of Williamsburg (except the ones with trust funds) and moved to Bushwick and Greenpoint.

LIC appears to be becoming the next DUMBO, but like DUMBO, it doesn't have any restaurants.

the meatpacking saw a few openings attempt to replicate the success of prior years...but nothing made waves...and as it became more and more a downtown version of Times Square and less and less a place where NY'ers actually went.....it became clear that its best days were past.

meanwhile, the WV didn't see a Ssam Bar or Tailor or Gordon Ramsay open, but it did all begin with Little Owl and the Spotted Pig....(Perry Street was the prior harbinger)

the WV has had for years a cluster of ambitious restaurants: Blue Hill, Cru, AOC Bedford, Mas; the Batali restaurants, and numerous neighborhood places on the incredibly cute 4th and 10th streets that relied upon charm, and the old-school neighborhood places that weren't very good. (Cafe Bruxelles, El Faro)....but then the Little Owl opened...

the casual bistro with really darn good food, often an open kitchen, and the young chef as auteur model took off.....(ok, so not all of them actually had good food but they all had ambition); we saw: Dell'Anima, Perilla, Pong, Soto, Market Table, Barfry, Bobo, Centro Vinoteca, Morandi, Alta, Gottino, The Smith, Blue Ribbon Market, Cafe Cluny, Hakata Tonton, Tasca, Waverly Inn, 8th Street Winecellar, Bar Blanc, Kingswood....

Edited January 18, 2008 by Nathan (log)

[Nathan]

these things go in waves...this is the current one.

[docsconz]

But you are only talking of openings. What about established restaurants that continue to be go-to places? With that I would say the epicenter continues to be around Columbus Circle or the Union Square area. NYC is much more than a certain demographic.

[Pan]

[...]LIC appears to be becoming the next DUMBO, but like DUMBO, it doesn't have any restaurants.[...]

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Huh? Please elaborate on what you mean in regard to both neighborhoods.

[weinoo]

East Village to the Lower East Side - let's not forget (despite what your personal opinion may be in re: the food) about Seymour Burton, Cafe Katja, Enoteca Barbone, Setagaya, EU (hey, they tried - perhaps if there was that little thing called a liquor license), Solex,

Kampuchea, Pala (one of your favorites), Buenos Aires, Suba (with Seamus), Le Lupanar, Back Forty, Cantina...

And I don't necessarily understand the comment:

the development of the LES continues apace, but its most notable openings are in the past -- Allen & Delancey is good, Rayuela ok and Barcaro tbd...

Notable openings? In the past?? These 3 restaurants all opened within the last year - didn't some of the restaurants in the op also open within the last year? And didn't all of the restaurants in the op open in the past. I'm confused, but that's nothing new.

[Nathan]

[...]LIC appears to be becoming the next DUMBO, but like DUMBO, it doesn't have any restaurants.[...]

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Huh? Please elaborate on what you mean in regard to both neighborhoods.

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I'm not aware of any restaurants of significance in either neighborhood.

[Nathan]

And I don't necessarily understand the comment:

the development of the LES continues apace, but its most notable openings are in the past -- Allen & Delancey is good, Rayuela ok and Barcaro tbd...

Notable openings? In the past?? These 3 restaurants all opened within the last year - didn't some of the restaurants in the op also open within the last year? And didn't all of the restaurants in the op open in the past. I'm confused, but that's nothing new.

←

what I meant was the LES' most notable restaurants all opened sometime ago.

[Pan]

[...]LIC appears to be becoming the next DUMBO, but like DUMBO, it doesn't have any restaurants.[...]

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Huh? Please elaborate on what you mean in regard to both neighborhoods.

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I'm not aware of any restaurants of significance in either neighborhood.

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Do you consider the River Cafe and Grimaldi's Pizzeria to be in DUMBO? And I do believe there are some restaurants in LIC. If they're just cheap, good neighborhood places, do they not exist?

[Pan]

East Village to the Lower East Side - let's not forget (despite what your personal opinion may be in re: the food) about Seymour Burton, Cafe Katja, Enoteca Barbone, Setagaya, EU (hey, they tried - perhaps if there was that little thing called a liquor license), Solex,

Kampuchea, Pala (one of your favorites), Buenos Aires, Suba (with Seamus), Le Lupanar, Back Forty, Cantina...

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Solex has just looked like a wine bar to me. I wasn't aware they even had food. Please tell me something about this place, though I'm tempted to boycott it for all time because it's there just because a greedy landlord raised rents too high for Teresa's to stay in business at that location.

[Nathan]

Do you consider the River Cafe and Grimaldi's Pizzeria to be in DUMBO? And I do believe there are some restaurants in LIC. If they're just cheap, good neighborhood places, do they not exist?

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neither of those is a new opening. we're all grateful for cheap good neighborhood places, but they're irrelevant to this discussion.

[chefboy24]

totally agree, the west village has it.

for me it's got

babbo/blue hill/annisa/centro vinoteca/pong/perry street/wallse/cru/barfry/little owl/august/little branch

plus murrays and citarella and florence meats

Edited January 20, 2008 by chefboy24 (log)

[weinoo]

totally agree, the west village has it.

for me it's got

babbo/blue hill/annisa/centro vinoteca/pong/perry street/wallse/cru/barfry/little owl/august/little branch

plus murrays and citarella and florence meats

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I'm sorry, but Babbo, Blue Hill, Annisa, Perry Street, August, Wallse, Cru, Little Branch, Murray's, Citerella's and Florence are not germane to the OP or discussion that follows.

As Nathan said, we may be grateful for them, but...

[oakapple]

We're in the era of the minor restaurant, because hardly anyone dares open a major one. And the WV does indeed seem to have more than its share of interesting new or "newish" minor restaurants these days. It'll take a while for us to see whether this mini-trend is anything more than a footnote to history.