Restaurant openings this week

Every week in New York City brings some new culinary delight. Here are some openings this week...

Chef Paul Liebrandt, whose restaurant Croton has two Michelin stars, is about to open his hotly anticipated Williamsburg restaurant. With Executive Chef Mazen Mustafa, this “modern French” eatery aims to be on the moderately pricy side, being in Brooklyn not Manhattan, and will serve dishes that sound both playful and delicate. The menu is cleverly categorized: Raw, Sea, Land, Shared and menu items include foie gras with spiced strawberry and almond, “Flavors of Bouillabaisse” with halibut, mussels, orange confit and fennel blossom and turbot with summer bean a la francaise and lemongrass nage.

When celebrity chef Elizabeth Falkner announced she was leaving Krescendo, the artisan pizzeria and Italian restaurant  in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, just months after opening it, foodies everywhere wondered where she’d land. That place is Corvo Bianco, a “coastal Italian-inspired restaurant” on the Upper West Side. The menu includes a selection of antipasti, salads, fresh pastas, seafood, meats, grilled pizza and panini, as well as assorted contorni. Some highlights: peperoncino prawns with cocoa nib romesco, salmon in smoke with salsa verde, rabbit cacciatore and for dessert, grilled peaches with bitter almond meringue, salted corn gelato and sorrel.

Tourists visiting the World Trade Center site now have a Morton’s steakhouse to pop into. The chain restaurant is well-known for its aged prime beef and at the opening party this reporter was able to sample some of the menu items, none of which disappointed. From jumbo (and I mean jumbo) shrimp with very spicy cocktail sauce, to filet mignon slices on soft, springy rolls with your choice of sauces (I opted for au poivre, naturally) to tuna tartar on crisps, the eats were luxurious and of high quality. The new space has a cavernous room in the basement that can be rented out for parties.

The Roberta’s (pizza/ Bushwick) alum Nick Subic is behind this new Asain hipster spot. You might be able to imagine the menu, which is made up of “snacks” and “larger plates designed for sharing.” But actually, maybe not. Items include Mapo chili cheese fries, Spam fried rice and kimchee carbonara with an optional topping of… Doritos. Yes, Doritos.