Restaurant Outlook

Welcome to Restaurant Outlook, a new feature in which we list the new and forthcoming restaurants of personal interest to us. There’s no attempt to be exhaustive, but merely to list those restaurants that have caught our fancy.

Fairly New

• Hundred Acres — This Marc Meyer/Vicki Freeman follow-up to Provence opens next week. This one will be more in the Five Points–Cookshop haute barnyard vein. As Eater noted, they could’ve just called it “Cookshop” and had a practically guaranteed hit—though no review from the Bruni. This one’ll get reviewed. A hit is no sure thing, but I wouldn’t bet against them. Reservation: June 6.
  
• Scarpetta — Italian restaurant by Scott Conant, formerly of Alto and L’Impero. Early reports are promising, but it’s in the Meatpacking District, which hasn’t seen a serious restaurant in years. Reservation: June 7.
  
• Elizabeth — Former Country chef de cuisine Doug Psaltis is designing the menu here. It’s only a consulting gig, which makes us skeptical, and Psaltis seldom remains anywhere for long, which makes us doubly skeptical. But at a low price point we’re willing to roll the dice. Reservation: May 30.
  
• Savarona — The rare serious Turkish restaurant in New York is surely worth a try. Reservation: May 31.
  
• Bar Milano — Early reviews are mixed, but the Lupa/’Inoteca guys have a strong track record. Reservation: May 23.
  
• Merkato 55 — Reviews have been mediocre. We’ve had several reservations, all cancelled for various reasons. My girlfriend no longer wants to go, so I’ll have to drop in one night after work. No plans to visit yet.
  
• Greenwich Grill — Of interest mainly because it’s near the office. No plans to visit yet.

Forthcoming

All of these restaurants have been announced or mentioned in the press, but some of them may be a long way off.

• Bouley v 3.0 — David Bouley’s move to the Mohawk Atelier Building at 161 Duane Street. Expected “by the fall.”
  
• Susur Lee’s first New York restaurant at 200 Allen Street on the Lower East Side, also expected “come fall.”
  
• Brushstroke, another Bouley restaurant, at 111 West Broadway. Given the well chronicled problems getting this restaurant off the ground, I would be surprised to see it before 2009.
  
• Restaurant Liebrandt, with Paul Liebrandt (formerly of Gilt) at the helm. Though Liebrandt admits he is working on a restaurant, no one is even sure where it will be (the old Montrachet site is the best guess) or when it will open. I walk by the Montrachet storefront regularly, and it remains sealed as tight as a drum.