Where to eat now: restaurant openings

Every week in New York City brings some new culinary delight. Here are the latest...

As the first New York offshoot of the West Coast burger chain, Greenwich Village’s Umami Burger exemplifies a masterful level of intricacy in burger building. The menu features the California originals, such as the Umami burger — a layering of shitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, a Parmesan crisp and special Umami Master Sauce — and the French Dip sandwich (with curried cauliflower and pickled wasabi), exclusive to New York City. Also offered are truffle fries and the off-the-menu cheesy tater tots. Read our review of Umami Burger in NYC.

From the team behind Greenpoint beer hall Tørst comes Luksus, a small restaurant focusing on "Nordic" elements. The restaurant serves a $75 tasting menu, which includes snacks and four courses and optional alcoholic and non-alcoholic ($45, $25) beverage pairings. Chef Daniel Burns, formerly of the Fat Duck and Momofuku's culinary lab, is creating dishes like raw razor clams with bone marrow, radish and cucumber vinaigrette.

Harlem is now home to New York City’s first Joe’s Crab Shack. Bringing its “100% Shore” attitude, Joe’s is bringing Southern flair to NYC, with signature crab buckets like the “classic steampot” — Dungeness crab, sweet snow crab, boiled shrimp, smoked sausage, fresh corn and potatoes — and the “bean town bake,” with two whole split lobsters. Diners can sip drinks like the Shark Bite, with rum, vodka and blue curacao, and enjoy plenty of citrus and lime-infused flavors at this 380-seat dining scene.

Chef Laurent Kalkotour introduces his seasonal and market-driven menu to DUMBO, showcasing dishes with southern French roots that are simplistic and technique-driven. These include starters like a beet and almond salad with a soft cooked egg and bacon; second courses like octopus with fennel and Nicoise olives and desserts like sweet corn panna cotta with jalapeno corn bread. The full bar offers artisanal whiskeys and spirits, as well as specialty cocktails crafter by PDT alum Payman Bahmani. Having trained under greats like Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse, we're expecting Kalkotour to bring something spectacular to the waterfront.

If you haven't had the fried chicken from any of the Blue Ribbon restaurants that sell it, shame on you. But there is a saving grace, the Eric and Bruce Bromberg, who are behind the Blue Ribbon empire, are set to open their new spot devoted entirely (well, almost entirely) to the beautiful fried delight that is their fried chicken. Blue Ribbon does theirs in a way that almost re-creates the dish. With its super-crispy skin, full of spice flavor and drizzle of honey, there's a balance there that can't be beat. There will also be chicken sandwiches and six variations on a chicken burger on the menu. 

Restauranteur James McGown (South Brooklyn Pizza, Buschenschank) has revamped the former P.J. Hanley's bar in Carroll Gardens - the oldest bar in Brooklyn having opened in 1874 - into Goldenrod, "an homage to Brooklyn's beer-brewing past." Hanley's, which closed after filing for bankruptsy, was once a local watering hole for the area's Norwegian population and was mostly a sports bar with bar food and, at one point, pizza for South Brooklyn, located next door. Goldenrod, named after the main beer brand of the Otto Huber Brewery in Bushwick, which operated a bar in 1893 in the space that later became P.J. Hanley’s, will serve 40 craft beers, sandwiches, burgers and of course, South Brooklyn Pizza.