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The Best Cake Slices in NYC, According to Food Baby

2025-06-09T17:18:46-04:00

@foodbabyny picks favorite slices, including chocolate blackout cake, birthday cake, 24-layer cake, and more

Several times a week, someone asks where to get the best cake: It’s such a common and important question that I was excited to tackle this map so we can have a definitive list to link people to from now on.

Let’s make things clear: The cake slice map is not an exhaustive list of the best slices of cake in New York. That is a whole separate undertaking, mostly consisting of composed desserts and hard-to-obtain cake at trendy and or high-end restaurants throughout the city (such as Yellow Rose, Claud, Bar Bête, and so on). This is a list of businesses that you can walk into and leave with a highly satisfying slice in a matter of minutes. I tried slices from 30 or so places over the span of a month, sometimes repeating places to try different specials, and concluded that these are the best of the best.

We’ve updated this map to include cake from Somedays, Welcome Home, and the Good Batch. Dropped for now it’s Milk Bar and Ladybird Bakery.

Best Dishes NY Editors Ate This Week: June 9

2025-06-09T14:53:46-04:00

The half-chicken at Claud. | Melissa McCart

Pizza, Filipino fried chicken, and half-chicken

With Eater editors dining out sometimes several times a day, we come across lots of standout dishes, and we don’t want to keep any secrets. Check back for the best things we ate this week.

Half chicken with lovage and pickled peppers at Claud

I’m on a mission, it seems, to try every half- and whole chicken on menus around town: so it was a given that we’d order the half-chicken at Claud during a recent visit. It was a hit. So juicy and so savory, the dish is dressed with lovage and a shower of pickles. There’s plenty of brine without overwhelming the dish, but make sure you order (housemade) bread for the plate. (Maybe practice restraint if you’re saving room for the restaurant’s famous slice of chocolate cake.) 90 E. 10th Street, at Third Avenue, East Village — Melissa McCart, lead editor, Northeast

Nadia Chaudhury/Eater NY

Pizza pizza from Mama’s Too.

Pizza slices at Mama’s Too

After writing about Mama’s Pizza closing on the Upper West Side last month, I figured it was time for me to check out the founders’ grandson’s downtown slice spinoff Mama’s Too. I walked past the very long time outside of L’industrie Pizzeria to this unassuming pizza shop, quickly ordered my new slices, and found a seat in the crowded space. I got one of each format: the Angry Nonna square slice, a nice sweet-savory combination thanks to the slightly zingy hot honey and chile oil; and then the house slice, which was a perfect rendition of what a fresh pizza slice should be (together for $11.25 with tax and tip). I regret not getting a sandwich, but there’s always next time. 323-325 Bleecker Street, near Christopher Street, West Village — Nadia Chaudhury, editor, Northeast

Stephanie Wu/Eater NY

Kanto fried chicken at Naks, served with garlic aioli.

Kanto fried chicken at Naks

Naks, the Filipino restaurant from the Unapologetic Foods team, has switched over to an a la carte menu for the entire restaurant (the main room was previously reserved for the $135 tasting menu-style kamayan). The new format means groups can try much more food, and the standout for us was the Kanto fried chicken ($16) — boneless chicken that managed to be incredibly crispy, hot, and tender even after we went back for seconds 20 minutes after it was served. Don’t miss the grilled lemon soda pork belly ($16) or the clay-pot adobo rice, ($32) either. 201 First Avenue, between East 12th and 13th streets, East Village — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief

Connor Reid/Eater

The bison strip loin at Lost and Found.

Bison strip loin at Lost and Found

This past Sunday, a group of friends and I were lucky enough to grab a last-minute reservation at the very intimate and often-crowded Lost and Found in Long Beach. It’s a very unassuming spot that never disappoints and keeps you coming back with its seasonal changes and frequent menu updates. I was pleasantly surprised to see a bison strip loin, which came dressed with an incredibly vibrant house-made chimichurri sauce that blew me away. I also snuck bites of my wife’s bistro burger, which never fails to deliver. Pro-tip: Do not skip the charred cheesecake. 951 West Beech Street, Long Beach — Connor Reid, senior video producer

Tuna sandwich at Bottega

Crown Heights daytime offerings leveled up in a big way this summer. First, Lisbonata, the Portuguese egg tart pop-up, opened an order-through-the-window permanent location. (The yuzu and pistachio flavors are a must!) Then, on the other side of Eastern Parkway, Bottega, a coffee shop with food, is also new. It’s here that I had some of my favorite sandwiches of late. We went for the chicken Milanese with broccoli rabe and provolone, a fancy take on the Italian classic; as well as the tuna with pickled red onion, marinated artichoke, fried capers, fontina, pistou rosé, and lemon aioli on griddled milk bread, basically an adult tuna melt (both $16). Venture to both businesses on a summer Friday and you’ll have the ideal lunch bang bang. 619 St. Johns Place and 215 Rogers Avenue — Emma Orlow, editor, Northeast

Beth Landman

Spaghetti with seafood at Bar Italia

Now that the weather is heating up, one of my favorite places to people-watch is Bar Italia on Madison Avenue, where I just spotted Vera Wang and lots of decked-out shoppers. I don’t usually think of pasta as a light choice, with the exception of this dish ($42), made with incredibly sweet fresh cherry tomatoes simmered for hours before whole filets of Mediterranean fish are added. Chef Dennis Franceschini always has seasonal specials, and if you get there in the next week or two, you can still catch the oversized white asparagus — sweet, nutty, and so soft you can cut it with a fork. 768 Madison Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets — Beth Landman, contributing writer, Northeast

A New 200-Seat Boat Bar Anchors in Hudson Yards

2025-06-09T12:53:21-04:00

Sailor’s Choice

Sailor’s Choice from the Grand Banks duo channels a New England seafood shack

Sailor’s Choice, a breezy seafood bar from Alex and Miles Pincus, opens today at 350 11th Avenue, at 30th Street. It joins a wave of new restaurants in Hudson Yards — a second location of Locanda Verde and Papa San, the Nikkei-style izakaya — following a fleet of post-pandemic failed ventures, including Thomas Keller’s TAK Room. Built around a vintage fishing boat-turned-centerpiece bar, the seasonal Sailor’s Choice is among the more chill options for drinking and snacking in one of Manhattan’s most corporate neighborhoods, where offices like Time Warner and Meta reside.

Sailor’s Choice is one of a handful of mostly nautical-themed restaurants from the brothers’ hospitality group, Crew, which includes New York boat bar Grand Banks near Tribeca, West Village waterfront Drift In, boat bar Pilot near Brooklyn Bridge, Island Oyster at Governors Island, and land-based Holywater. There’s also High Tide in Dumbo and Fairweather in the High Line Hotel. This new project also features a boat — albeit one that’s docked on land.

The concept came together quickly after Alex Pincus gave a speech at a Hudson River Park gala and was approached by a Hudson Yards executive.

“At first,” Pincus says, “it didn’t feel like my scene,” he said of Hudson Yards. But a Monday morning visit changed his mind. “It was packed. I hadn’t been there since before COVID. It felt so alive — and I thought, how cool would it be to drop a proper New England seafood shack right in the middle of all this?”

The name Sailor’s Choice comes from the brothers’ post-sailing ritual: a cold beer poured over ice. That unfussy vibe is what the Pincus brothers are going for in a restaurant that can seat around 200 people. As far as the scene, the vintage fishing boat (made by Hinckley, loaned to the brothers by the fancy mariners’ club, Barton & Gray) is surrounded by counter seating and a large deck with yellow-and-white striped umbrellas and nautical-looking chairs. A second bar, built into a retro Airstream, handles cocktail service.

Sailor’s Choice

The menu leans into New England seafood shack offerings, with a lobster BLT ($27), oysters ($23 to $29 for six; $43 to $55 a dozen), caviar tater tots ($27), fish and chips ($29), and a surf club sandwich ($21). Drinks range from a Tropicalia with watermelon and vodka to spritzes. They include “yacht club” offerings like gin and tonics and martinis ($18 to $21); wines by the glass or bottles, and beers — including any frosty brew over-ice with lime for $7.

Sailor’s Choice

Eddie Huang Is Back Cooking in New York — And Wants to Open a Restaurant

2025-06-09T09:42:04-04:00

Eddie Huang is cooking at the Flower Shop this summer. | Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for IMDb

He’ll be at the Flower Shop through the summer

Chef Eddie Huang, an author, TV personality, and filmmaker who jump-started his culinary career with his Taiwanese bun shop BaoHaus in 2009, is back cooking in the neighborhood where it all started. This month, Huang is headed to the Flower Shop, a Lower East Side pub, located at 107 Eldridge Street, where he will serve a comeback modern Chinese menu through the summer. It’s a test run for a restaurant that Huang hopes to open in New York, telling Eater that he is actively looking for the right space to lease.

The seasonal residency, he’s calling Gazebo, features a three-course dinner ($80 per person) that is “fueled uniquely on olive oil from his wife’s family field in Greece,” per a statement. The prix fixe includes dan dan noodles dressed with cherrystone clams and pancetta, lion’s head meatballs, and whole-tail lobster toast with Hainan-style lobster claws over rice. It’s a switch-up from Flower Shop’s typical menu, a lineup of maitake rigatoni, shrimp tacos, and pan-roasted cauliflower steak. Gazebo runs from June to September, on Wednesdays to Fridays, with seatings at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Its inaugural night, Wednesday, June 11, is already sold out.

“I’m definitely looking for a space,” says Huang, who’s condensing his current search to a 20-block radius of LES to Tribeca. But because of uncertain economic times, “it’s silly to sign a lease right now,” so he doesn’t anticipate an opening until 2026.

In the meantime, the pop-up marks Huang’s culinary return to his all-time, “til-I-die” neighborhood in New York. Two years after its LES debut in 2009, BaoHaus relocated to the East Village into a storefront off of Union Square, until 2020 when it closed during the early days of the pandemic (there was also briefly a BaoHaus Los Angeles, which is also now closed). Xiao Ye, another Lower East Side endeavor, also closed after a short run. In the past five years, Huang has not publicly put his name behind another New York restaurant, focusing on the entertainment world.

Eddie Huang

Iberico and clams join forces in a quesadilla.

He’s officially a NY resident again, having moved back from LA with his wife and toddler this year. “The wildfires were a sign to go home,” he says. The Hollywood industry can quickly become a complacent one, he adds. “You get kind of sick waiting around for the phone to ring,” he says. “Restaurants and food are the things I love. So it’s nice to come back to do physical work.”

Dubbed a “dance music-influenced” menu, Gazebo refers to the Beirut-born, well-traveled singer who rose to fame during the Italo-disco music craze of the 1980s. Huang specifically pays homage to his first hit single, “Masterpiece” — a hit in Euro-Asian dance circles — which was released the same year he was born (and one he now sings to his son every night), according to his personal Substack.

Look for menu changes each month, which include the results of recent experimental dishes he’s been working on at home. A quesadilla was a “happy accident,” he says; the only way his son would eat his Iberico and clam stew is if it joined forces with his favorite food.

“So many people serve raw seafood on a plate,” says Huang, and his Peruvian-style ceviche stands out with Hokkaido scallops, Marcona almonds, and tiger’s milk, which speaks to his time with Lima’s legendary chef Javier Wong.

There’s a reason for this particular pop-up location. Flower Shop opened in 2017 with big-name money behind it: Original investors included skateboard legend Tony Hawk and William Tisch, the son of New York Giants’ co-owner Steve Tisch. Huang’s fresh new partnership with the Flower Shop stemmed from a meeting that his NY fashion designer friend, Maxwell Osborne, set up with its co-owner, Dylan Hales (Randolph Beer). Flower Shop, which features a lower-level bar with a pool table, jukebox, and pink fireplace, added a second location in Austin last fall.

A former Cooking Channel and Vice host, Huang detailed his industry-hopping life as a lawyer to chef in a 2013 autobiography titled Fresh Off the Boat. His culinary fame that followed sparked an ABC show of the same name, which starred Randall Park and Constance Wu, and ended after six seasons in 2020. Most recently, he made Vice is Broke, a documentary on the downfall of the media company, where he formerly hosted a culinary show.

Momofuku founder and fellow Northern Virginia native David Chang, who has hosted Huang on his podcast, gave the forthcoming pop-up a shout-out on Instagram last week.

Brandy From New York? This Upstate Distillery Is Counting on It.

2025-06-09T07:30:00-04:00

Brandy from Klocke Estate. | Eric Medsker/Kocke Estate

Brandy may not be flying off the shelves in the U.S. yet, but Klocke Estate owners are playing a long game

Since the brandy distillery Klocke Estate opened last summer in Claverack, New York, the restaurant has been the draw. It’s dazzling, situated on a hilltop above 160 acres of farmland, orchards, and vineyards. The seasonal American menu from chef Becky Kempter shows off leek croquettes, a spring cavatelli with ramps, asparagus, peas, and mains like roast chicken or lamb shank. Klocke deserves its spot among the handful of mid-Hudson Valley restaurants that are destinations. Of those, it’s undoubtedly the most luxurious.

In the dining room, chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling windows cast soft light over myriad textures: crushed velvet and William Morris-style floral designs on the walls, a marble fireplace with a Victorian tapestry hanging above, and exposed wood beams. Tables are situated around a custom glass cabinet in the middle of the room which displays co-owner John Frishkopf’s library of brandies, Armagnacs, and Calvados. It’s a lush setting to observe the sage-colored Catskills in the distance.

Klocke Estate

The view from the bar at Klocke Estate.

Still, the restaurant, Frishkopf says, primarily serves to “set the table for our brandy.”

At the moment, brandy isn’t flying off the shelves in the U.S, but Frishkopf and his husband, Brett Mattingly, are playing a long game to establish regional brandy’s preeminence. It already has provenance: Laird’s Applejack in New Jersey, founded in 1780, is the very first distillery in the United States (It’s also one of the few legacy brands today run by a woman); And there’s evidence that a man named Jakob Planck brought several stills from Holland to the northern Hudson Valley, around the time brandy was first being exported from Europe by Dutch fleets, in 1638.

The state of brandy in the U.S. doesn’t daunt the founders. “Eventually, the brandy we make here in Claverack,” says Caleb Gregg, director of farming and production, “will sit beside the world’s great brandies, specifically Cognac caliber.”

Frishkopf, a Boston native, was first inspired to make brandy on the plum and apricot orchards of friends’ estates while based in Prague early in his finance career. Returning to the Northeast in his 40s, he wanted to make brandy commercially.

Klocke Estate

The spirits are stored in a squat, partially subterranean post-and-beam storage barn with thick straw-bale walls and a deep, sloping zinc roof just down the hill from the restaurant.

Klocke Estate

The estate brandy matures inside the barrels for three to thirty years, depending on the batch.

The region is one of a few places, he says, where conditions for growing cider apples and grapes were always ideal— for brandy, not for wine.

Brandy grapes are harvested earlier than wine grapes, when they have a sugar content (or brix) between 16 and 18 percent. That relatively low sugar produces an alcohol content between eight and ten percent after fermentation, ensuring it will have greater contration of flavor after distillation to 70 percent. Additionally, lower sugar levels result in higher tannin and acid content, according to Gregg, providing the necessary structure for brandy’s prolonged aging process.

In 2017, Frishkopf and Mattingly purchased the property. With the help of veteran distiller Dan Farber in California, Cornell University, and expert wine and apple farmers around New York State, they selected 43 varieties of organic cider apples and nine organic white grapes, all suited to the climate and terroir of the Hudson Valley. Mattingly, an MIT grad, raised on a family farm, designed a master plan for planting using a permaculture approach that weaves sustainability and self-sufficiency into the design. In 2020, the team planted the first trees and vines.

William Geddes/Klocke Estate

The lush restaurant dining room at Klocke Estate.

Despite that most apple growing in the East has moved south due to risks like fireblight, the team remains committed to organic farming — with an eye to bring back cider apples that used to grow in the region for hundreds of years — with the help of old and new technology. They monitor digital wind, temperature, and sun on large flat screens. They implant organic bacteria cultures to battle fireblight, powdery and downy mildew, and other bacterial infections. They position black locust posts where eagles and red-tailed hawks can sit and hunt larger pests, like voles.

As of this writing, three successful grape harvest and one apple harvest have been pressed and fermented into wine and cider, and distilled in a copper Alembic Charentais still imported from Cognac. Right after distillation, the spirits are transferred to barrels made from aged French oak, where they will mature for another three to thirty years, depending on the batch.

“It takes patience,” according to Gregg. “... and we may find out, in 25 years, that the grapes we’re growing are better suited for younger brandies, for example. That’s the fun part.”

Consumers might not try the estate’s best brandies for decades. Perhaps they’ll keep improving long after Frishkopf and Mattingly retire. With hope, they’ve invested in infrastructure that will outlast them — including the storage facility, the still, and above all, people like Gregg, who, in his late 20s, manages all aspects of brandy production.

While customers wait for the first batch of brandy, Frishkopf sees his role as a teacher and host. In addition to the brandy library, they’re also producing vermouth. Klocke currently sells their white vermouth and sweet red vermouths under the Brevis label, three ready-to-drink cocktails—an appletini, a brandy Manhattan, and a brandy Old-Fashioned—three eaux de vie, and what they call an unoaked brandy, or the Klocke Estate 00.

Klocke Estate

A sunset view of Klocke Estate.

Frishkopf says that their customers will be able to taste the evolution of their brandy over the years, which reinforces the time theme as the through line of the brand. Frishkopf points to the Dutch word for clock as inspiration for the name; the vermouth label Brevis, named after the Latin word for brief; and the ready-made cocktail label, Flyback, named after the term for when a chronograph returns to zero.

During dinner service at Klocke, diners often catch magnificent sunsets. It quickly became a tradition for everyone to emerge onto the west-facing patio with their drinks for twenty minutes to stare toward the mountains where Rip Van Winkle mythically fell asleep for twenty years, across land that has fallen in and out of cultivation for generations. Often, the waitstaff and cooks join them, signaling there’s no need to rush.

The Saddest NYC Restaurant Closures in June

2025-06-06T14:09:03-04:00

Dishes at Llama San. | Llama San

Tracking all New York City’s shuttered restaurants this month

This is Eater’s guide to all the New York City restaurants, bars, and cafes that closed in June 2025 (see: May, April, March, February, and January). This list will be updated weekly and is a round-up of the dining and drinking places that have shuttered around the city. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at ny@eater.com.

June 5

East Village: Danish pastry bakery Sweet Cake appears to have closed its Manhattan location, as reported by EV Grieve, sometime this spring. Its Flushing location remains open. 215 First Avenue at East 13th Street

Greenwich Village: Critically acclaimed Japanese Peruvian restaurant Llama San is closing this week after six years this week. Its last day will be on Saturday, June 7. Chef Erik Ramirez and Juan Correa are still operating Llama Inn in Brooklyn and the recently opened Papa San, both with similar Japanese Peruvian approaches. 359 Sixth Avenue, at West Washington Place.

Harlem: Japanese comfort food restaurant Chopped Parsley closed on Saturday, May 31. Owner and chef Yumika Parsley, who opened her restaurant in 2015, had been recounting her issues with the address’s management on Instagram, writing that she was told she wasn’t able to renew the lease back in March. 500 West 146th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue

Herald Square: Martinique Hotel restaurant B&L Diner has closed sometime in May. The space had been co-partner and chef Franklin Becker’s restaurant the Press Club Grill, but that closed in September 2024 to become this diner later that fall by Becker and Stephen Loffredo. The hotel’s other dining and drinking spots include newcomer dessert shop Sweet Graffiti, cocktail bar the Bronze Owl, and the B&L Bakery. 1262 Broadway between 32nd and 33rd streets

Long Island City: Queens Chinese speakeasy 929 Speakeasy closed on Sunday, May 18. The team is going to relocate the cocktail bar, which opened in 2021, to a new address sometime later this year, per its website. The team also turned the current address into a new bar, 56709, with cocktails and Japanese City pop music. 42-45 27th Street, between 42nd Road and 43rd Street

Upper West Side: Chinese dry hot pot restaurant 108 Food Dried Hot Pot closed sometime this past spring, as reported by West Side Rag. Former Eater NY critic Robert Sietsema raved about the restaurant when it opened in 2017. 2794 Broadway at West 108th Street

Upper West Side: Family-run Mexican restaurant Taqueria y Fonda is closing on Saturday, June 7, as reported by I Love the Upper West Side. Owner Jorge Lopez had sold the restaurant because of “rising rents,” per the website. The restaurant had opened back in 1999. 968 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 107th and 108th streets

Longtime Lower East Side Restaurant Pig and Khao Is Closing

2025-06-06T12:56:39-04:00

Pig and Khao is closing on the Lower East Side. | Pig and Khao

It’s part of a larger shake up for Leah Cohen’s restaurants

Pig and Khao, Leah Cohen’s Southeast Asian restaurant, which had been on the Lower East Side for more than a decade, is shutting down. An Instagram announcement stated that the restaurant’s last day at 68 Clinton Street, near Rivington Street, is June 22. The lease had been up for renewal, and with the building “requiring significant investment to remain operational,” they made the decision not to renew. Eater has reached out for more information.

Cohen first opened Pig and Khao 13 years ago on the coattails of making a name on Top Chef. It had a dramatic first year before cementing itself as a longtime standby in the Lower East Side amidst so much change in the neighborhood.

Cohen has expanded the Pig and Khao name over the years: In 2017, she debuted Piggyback Bar in Jersey City, closing it two years later. She later opened Piggyback, an offshoot concept, near Penn Station in 2020, with creative spins influenced by food in Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and her travels. Cohen also announced this week that she would be shutting this restaurant down on June 22 as well.

It is survived by her last-remaining Manhattan operation: Pig and Khao on the Upper West Side, which opened a couple of months ago.

In 2021, it was reported that Pig and Khao would undergo an unlikely partnership, for “financial and strategic support,” combining forces with the speakeasy cocktail bar team PDT and chef Marc Forgione’s restaurants under a newly-formed hospitality group, Apres Cru.

Is The New Italian Restaurant in Trump Wall Street Already in Hot Water?

2025-06-06T11:12:46-04:00

Nerolab. | Nerolab

Plus, Manhattan pickle and biscuit restaurant temporarily closes because of health department — and more intel

It’s very unclear what is going on at a Rome-based restaurant's first and only American location inside the Trump Building in the Financial District, which just opened two months ago. The New York Post reports that NeroLab appears to have closed suddenly last week. A sign out in front reads, “Sorry, due to technical problems, the place remains closed until future notice,” according to the Post, and the head of commercial leasing for the Trump Organization, Myles Fennon, responded “no comment” to the Post’s email inquiries on what was happening. However, the restaurant’s Instagram account remains active, and reservations are still being accepted online. Several calls, texts, emails, and Instagram direct messages to the restaurant went unanswered.

Before Nero, the space was supposed to become a Dean & Deluca market in 2015, but the upscale grocery chain went defunct entirely. The address had been empty for quite some time because of its association with Trump, making it known as a retail pariah.

Nerolab’s sprawling restaurant was announced in 2020 and finally opened in April 2025. The company also runs a separate coffee shop, Nerolab Caffe, within the Midtown Trump Building on Fifth Avenue — it’s also unclear what’s happening with this. There had been plans to open 10 more locations in NYC by the end of the year.

Uptown brunch spot temporarily closes because of DOH

Upper West Side beer and biscuit spot Jacob’s Pickles has been temporarily closed by the New York City Health Department, as reported by West Side Rag. The news website reports that the 509 Amsterdam Avenue restaurant failed its inspection on Wednesday, June 4. Jacob’s owner Jacob Hadjigeorgis shares a statement with Eater (which is also posted on the door of the restaurant), explaining that “due to an issue uncovered by the Department of Health — referencing damaged areas of the facilities — it’s the necessary decision” to close and address the issues. The goal is to reopen “by the weekend.” He continues: “While unexpected, we are genuinely grateful that this issue was brought to our attention.”

Hadjigeorgis is in the middle of relocating the restaurant to a new address at 680 Columbus Avenue, and West 93rd Street, with the hope of opening by end of summer, according to the team. He’s holding onto the original location to turn it into a new bar called Velvet Cowboy.

King launches a summer cafe

Soho restaurant King — fresh off being listed on the New York Times’ Best 100 Restaurants list this week — is adding daytime service for the summer, dubbed Cafe King. Co-founders Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi are taking their cues for the seasonal pop-up from French and Italian cafes. There will be coffee from Brooklyn roastery Caffe Vita. Pastry chef Fiona Thomas is crafting baked goods and dishes, including scones with whipped honey butter and strawberry-lavender preserves, frittata verde made with asparagus, chevre cheese, and mint, and a cured salmon, cucumber, and creme fraiche tartine. It started on June 4 and runs through Monday, August 4, taking place from 8 to 11 a.m. every day. Everything is available for takeout or dine-in. Shi is also opening her own Chinese American wine bar in Chinatown, Lei, tonight as an independent endeavor.

The Biggest New Restaurant Openings This Month

2025-06-06T09:37:36-04:00

Oysters at the Dynamo Room. | The Dynamo Room

From Lei to a reborn Dell’anima and the Dynamo Room

This is Eater’s guide to all the new restaurants, bars, and cafes that opened in June 2025. This list will be updated weekly and is a round-up of new places in the city we’re interested in checking out. When we’ve been to a place, and like it, we will then include an abbreviated number of openings on our heatmap to let you know the ones that are actually worth it. Stay tuned. If there’s an opening in your neighborhood that we’ve missed, let us know at ny@eater.com.

Chinatown: King co-owner Anni Shi has debuted an independent wine bar, Lei, with a Chinese American menu on a historic street in the neighborhood. It opens on Friday, June 6. 15-17 Doyers Street, near Pell Street

City Island: This seafood haven, an island off the Bronx mainland, has a new restaurant called ATIK. The Mediterranean spot comes from an owner of neighboring Vistamar, a Latin restaurant on the island, alongside partner Josh DeCuffa, a City Island lifer “whose grandfather founded the beloved next door Jack’s Bait and Tackle in 1945,” per a spokesperson. 555 City Island Avenue, at Cross Street

Crown Heights: Bottega, a new coffee shop and sandwich spot, has opened in Brooklyn from the team behind Italian restaurant Maretta in the East Village. 215 Rogers Avenue, at Union Street

Long Island City: It’s a speakeasy switch-up; a cocktail bar stationed inside the Taiwanese street food concept Gulp, which was formerly called 929, has been replaced by one called 56709, with an 1980s Japanese theme. 42-45 27th Street, near 42nd Road

Noho: As you might’ve heard, it’s a great time for Vietnamese coffee in New York, the latest is 88 Coffee, which debuted at Bowery Market, according to EV Grieve. 348 Bowery, at Great Jones Street

Nomad: Mama Mezze, a new Mediterranean spot, has debuted near Madison Square Park, with a 100+ seat patio. It comes from the team behind the Italian restaurant group, La Pecora Bianca, which has several iterations in the city. 1123 Broadway, at West 25th Street

Penn Station: Dining options around Penn Station have leveled up over the past year. Now, Sunday Hospitality — known for Rule of Thirds in Greenpoint and overseeing the new hospitality projects at the reborn Hotel Chelsea — is opening something new in the area. It seems every new restaurant is looking to old-school New York steakhouses as of late, and the Dynamo Room is no different. But in Sunday’s hands, this could hopefully be the de facto dining-out option before going to Madison Square Garden. 2 Penn Plaza

Rockefeller Center: Lobel’s Original, from the family that runs the butcher shop, Lobel’s of New York (it first debuted on the Upper East Side in 1954), opened an offshoot at Rock Center. Several sandwiches, including a prime steak version, are for sale. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, rink level

Upper East Side: Marlow East features a Southern-inspired menu that ranges from buttermilk fried chicken and Parker House rolls to country-ham-and-pimento croquettes. 1022 Lexington Avenue, at East 73rd Street

Upper East Side: The Frick Collection opens its new museum restaurant this week. Westmoreland — the museum’s first restaurant in 89 years — will debut starting on Friday, June 6. It’s overseen by the Danny Meyer-founded Union Square Events, in a kitchen led by chef Skyllar Hughes, who had most recently been at Meyer’s Italian restaurant Ci Siamo. It’s part of the museum’s overall renovations, which debuted back in April. 1 E. 70th Street, at Fifth Avenue

West Village: Dell’anima is what Grub Street describes as “once an early 2010s favorite,” where celebrity couple sightings were frequent. It has been revived in what was the old home of Pearl Oyster Bar, followed by the short-lived Figure Eight restaurant. 18 Cornelia Street, near West Fourth Street

Tracking the NYC Restaurants in ‘And Just Like That...’ Season 3, Episode 2

2025-06-05T22:03:53-04:00

Seema on a bad date at Le B. | Craig Blankenhorn/Max

Eat throughout New York City like Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Seema, and Lisa

And just like that, HBO Max’s Sex and the City sequel series returns for its third season. And Just Like That... brings back our long-time New Yorkers Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), as well as relative newcomers Seema (Sarita Choudhury) and Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker), to our televisions and laptops. What is summer without our gals talking candidly about sex, making bad puns, and dining and drinking around the city?

Like previous seasons, Eater will be tracking where the gang is eating across New York City, from brunch sessions to romantic dinners to cocktail dates. This guide will be updated weekly when each episode airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m., leading up to the finale. And we’re saying it now: there will be spoilers ahead.

Episode 2, “Outlook Good”

Welcome to New Rat City, Carrie Bradshaw. Her idyllic Gramercy Park townhouse garden is overrun by the truest of New Yorkers — rats! Miranda discovers the joys of bad reality dating shows, and Seema’s dealing with a parade of bad dates. Anthony is fulfilling his dream of opening a physical Hot Fellas bakery, or as he too obviously calls it, a “dick-and-mortar.” It looks cute, with a counter, baked goods on display, tiled walls, lots of blues, and bread-shaped scones and door handles. (The production team didn’t use an existing bakery for the filming — rather, they took over an empty storefront on the corner of East 88th Street and Madison Avenue.)

Jac’s on Bond

26 Bond Street, near Lafayette Street, Noho

The episode begins with Carrie meeting with her former neighbor Lisette, who bought her longtime Upper East Side apartment at the cocktail bar. Lisette preemptively orders them both gimlets. “I made a bold choice,” she explains. Lisette gifts Carrie a necklace with her old key and street address while they chat about dating in the city.

Rosa Mexicano

61 Columbus Avenue at West 62nd Street, Lincoln Square

The Upper West Side location of the Mexican mini-chain is a major set piece for this episode. In the first scene, Carrie, Miranda, and Seema are seated in the main dining room with chips and salsa for the group. A server comes over to make them tableside guacamole; she chimes in during Miranda’s discussion of dating reality show Bi Island, and Miranda falls in love.

Later on, Carrie and Miranda are back at the restaurant — Carrie is Miranda’s “guacamole beard” while Miranda flirts with the same staffer. “I predict a very bright future for you,” Carrie says, “Your combined good cholesterol will be through the roof.” They’re seated next to the stunning blue-tiled waterfall wall. They order the guacamole again made by the same server, but alas, it turns out she’s not interested in dating Miranda. Carrie also sends a voice text to Aidan while standing in the restaurant’s beautiful bathroom. (Rosa Mexicana is planning on shuttering this Lincoln Square location to reopen nearby inside the Empire Hotel on West 63rd Street at some point this year.

Le B

283 West 12th Street at West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village

Seema goes on a series of bad dates at the luxe restaurant, where she and the lackluster men sit at the best seats at the bar — the corner. She disses one date who she assumes will ask to split the check by summing up the experience: “Drinks: 30 dollars; telling you to go shove it: priceless.” Amazing.

Tatiana

10 Lincoln Center Plaza, at West 65th Street and Ninth Avenue, Lincoln Square

Seema goes on what she assumes is a date set up by her coworker at the upscale Afro-Caribbean restaurant. But it turns out to be a matchmaker meeting with Sydney, played by the delightful Cheri Oteri. (Maybe matchmaking in New York City is in the air: director Celine Song’s new movie Materialists, which comes out on Friday, June 13, centers on a matchmaker in Manhattan.) Sydney showcases how good she is at reading people by ordering for Seema: “salmon tartare, wasabi vinaigrette on the side, extra avocado, and hold the scallions.” Seema agrees it’s the right choice. For herself, she gets the crispy artichoke and a martini (none of these are served at Tatiana actually).

Bottino

246 Tenth Avenue, near West 24th Street, Chelsea

For Seema’s attempt to act like an appealing woman for the sake of a man, she goes on a date in the pretty garden patio of the Italian restaurant. They’re eating pasta and drinking red wine; later, the guy orders two tiramisus, but Seema has had enough. “I hated the cabernet you chose, and the tiramisu is tired,” she says, admitting that this isn’t who she really is. He claims to still be into the date, but then ditches her, leaving Sydney to pop up out of nowhere to finish the dessert.

And just like that (sorry, sorry), we’re ready for next week’s episode.

Episode 1, “Outlook Good”

Goodbye, Carrie’s brownstone that’s actually in the West Village but masquerades as the Upper East Side; hello, new Gramercy Park townhouse. Last season, Carrie sold her iconic studio to buy and move into a large building along the park for herself and her cute kitty Shoe. Carrie and Aidan are in an ambiguous not-being-together-for-now situation as he lives in Virginia. Miranda’s now back in New York and single.

Motel No Tell

210 Avenue A, at East 13th Street, East Village

Of course, a queer bar decked out with neon and a disco ball would be blasting Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” This East Village bar is standing in for a “lady bar,” as Miranda describes to Carrie and Charlotte, thanking them for accompanying her on a night out of trying to score a date. Now, she’s a non-alcoholic drinker, but laments her $37 mocktail tabs, and later orders a Phony Negroni.

A couple of scenes later, we’re back at the bar: it’s closing time and Miranda is alone. But she meets Mary (played by Rosie O’Donnell), a Canadian visiting the city. They end up going to her hotel room together.

(In real life, Motel No Tell is celebrating its television appearance by offering a cocktail special for the summer: the Lady Pond is made with vodka, orange, vermouth, cranberry, lime, and apple shrub, for $16.)

Tavern on the Green

West 67th Street and Central Park West, Upper West Side

Okay, the iconic Central Park restaurant isn’t actually seen on the show, but it’s the butt of a joke. Miranda recaps her hookup to Carrie, explaining that she turned out to be a nun who really wanted to take her to Tavern on the Green, saying “she doesn’t know, it’s her first trip to New York.” Carrie is aghast: “I don’t know which is worse: that you slept with a nun or a tourist.”

Jean-Georges

1 Central Park West, between Columbus Circle and West 61st Street, Lincoln Square

Another talked-about but never-seen restaurant. Seema’s Marvel director boyfriend Ravis is back from filming in Egypt and tells her he booked lunch at the French tasting menu restaurant. But before that, his film crew has to scout locations in Red Hook, which makes him late for their 1 p.m. reservation. He pushes it back to dinner, and the group eats cooler sandwiches on the pier. But of course, they miss their dinner, and Seema breaks it off. “I don’t do vans or Cool Ranch potato chips, but I did try,” she says.

Red Rooster

310 Lenox Avenue, at West 126th Street, Harlem

Lisa is tasked with throwing a last-minute cocktail reception for her husband Herbert to make him look cool for his political campaign running for city comptroller. So what’s cooler than the celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson’s comfort food flagship? The dining room is full — Lisa tells the girls that they should “eat everything” and that “the fritters are no joke.” The tables are laden with fried chicken and sandwiches, and the event ends with Carrie and Miranda eating some sort of pudding-like dessert out of little mugs.