It’s been a scrumptious two weeks of openings, closings and restaurant gossip. Here’s the skinny:
• Meals on Wheels: Everyone’s favorite eco-eatery is going mobile. Sean Meenan, owner of Fort Greene staple Habana Outpost and SoHo’s Café Habana, now has a food truck in the works. Meenan in currently focusing his expanding empire’s new Los Angeles eatery, but restaurant workers at Habana Outpost said the truck would be plying the streets with Cuban fare within the month.
• Foodifying Bed-Stuy: According to the Bed-Stuy Blog, rumor has it that a new Italian restaurant is coming to the spot once slotted for Butternut Market at Stuyvesant Avenue and Macon Street. Word is that is may be a new venture from David Seatts of the late Tavern on Nostrand. The ’hood is also getting another new eatery: Black Swan, a dinner and brunch spot which opened last night on Bedford Avenue. It’s a gastropub with 16 beers on tap and one cask ale.
• To market, to market: Mother-daughter dream team Allison Kave (of First Prize Pies) and Rhonda Kave (of Roni-Sue’s Chocolates) have joined forces to launch God Buns Market, a new Sunday food market in the outdoor space next to Fatty ’Cue on the south side of Williamsburg. Other ways to sweeten the wait for a table? Green Onions & Jelly Bread preserves and tea, Sarivole Organic Bakery, Goldies Soaps and Pishka Fresh Jewelry, to name a few.
• Just eat it: On Saturday, 10 binge eaters will race to inhale 24 double chocolate cupcakes in less than 12 minutes at the Ivy Bake Shop’s inaugural cupcake eating contest in Bay Ridge. To the shagrin of the professional competitive eating community, owner Daniellan Louie told the Daily News that only amateurs are allowed to compete for the $175 prize.
• Mason on the Move: Maverick chef Sam Mason, formerly of wd-50 and Tailor, revealed last week that his next move will actually be a bar, slated to open May 1 at Grand and Leonard Streets in Williamsburg. Don’t expect any of Mason’s revelatory cookery — sadly the bar will be food free. Mason told New York Magazine that the bar will have “just whiskey, beer, and a pool table.”
• Same name, different tune: The temporarily shuttered Brooklyn Heights’ bodega, The River Deli, will soon reopen — this time with a little more than just midnight snackage. The owners are keeping the name, but rechristening the deli as an Italian restaurant and wine bar. The new spot is slated to open within the month.
• New on Columbia Street: Fultummy’s, a new sandwich joint with an “international” focus, has opened up on Columbia and Union Streets. The menu is a mere four sandwiches long, but we here they’re all pretty delicious. If that doesn’t get you, the prospect of free Wi-Fi on Columbia Street probably will.
• Make way for the burgers: The mini-cafe next to Smith Street’s La Petite Provence may have shuttered prematurely, but only to make way for something we love even more — burgers. Jean-Jacques and Leslie Bernat have reimagined the space as the more downscale JB’s Burger joint. The French influence, however, isn’t totally lost — the hot dog comes on a baguette.
• Mystery solved: The mystery behind those papered windows at Grand Avenue between Putnam Avenue and Fulton Street in Clinton Hill has been solved — the two adjoined spaces are being combined to create a brand new 34-seat bar with a limited menu, currently christened Fulton Grand Bar. The bar is expected to open sometime next month.
• Soul for Dekalb: Signage recently went up at the shuttered popular Downtown soul food spot Ruthie’s indicating the space will spawn more fried chicken — in the form of a new eatery called Foster’s Southern Restaurant. No word yet on when all of our cornbread cravings will be abated.
