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\n Faux doesn\u2019t have a sign, but it\u2019s still hard to miss.
\n Illustration: Naomi Otsu\n <\/p>\n
Welcome to Grub Street\u2019s rundown of restaurant recommendations that aims to answer the endlessly recurring question: Where should we go? These are the spots that our food team thinks everyone should visit, for any reason (a new chef, the arrival of an exciting dish, or maybe there\u2019s an opening that\u2019s flown too far under the radar). This month: biscuits in Williamsburg, a burger in Tribeca, crowd-pleasers from Andrew Carmellini, and more.<\/p>\n
The Astor<\/a> (Nolita) Hommali<\/a> (West Village) All of Our Picks, Mapped<\/p>\n See the Map<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Sono<\/a> (East Village) Faux<\/a> (Tribeca) Ferguson\u2019s Country<\/a> (Williamsburg) EAT LIKE THE EXPERTS.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Grub Street newsletter.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
The Astor, which occupies a wide swath of space on the mezzanine level of the Public Theater, is less a new arrival than it is a reimagining of the theater\u2019s previous restaurant, the Library. It feels markedly different, however: Walls are crammed with decades of memorabilia from the Public\u2019s history, and a large-scale mural, depicting more than 30 prominent caricatured New Yorkers, peers down from behind the bar. Andrew Carmellini is still the guiding culinary hand for the menu, which leans heavily and predictably New York\u2013y. A wide puck of Caesar salad, crowned lightly with \u201csnowy cheese\u201d and a whole plump anchovy, doesn\u2019t break ground but also doesn\u2019t need to. A roasted half-chicken is amplified by a garlicky and peppery (bullhorn, that is) \u201cshowbiz\u201d sauce, which you\u2019ll want to sop up with whatever\u2019s left over from the complimentary bread starter. And I\u2019d be remiss not to mention a sizzling dish of pumpkin-and-cheese macaroni, rich and slightly earthy with a salty scattering of whole frizzled sage leaves. Get to dessert, and the strawberry split reads like a nostalgic nod to ice-cream-truck shortcakes. \u2014Shay Cohen<\/a><\/p>\n
The ivy-covered, two-story building at 28 Seventh Avenue had been languishing as a private-events space. Thankfully, it is now this stunning Thai restaurant from Eleven Madison Park<\/a> vets chef Chattchakorn \u201cBenz\u201d Khajornchaisan, Kritayanee \u201cAir\u201d Promsarin, and Pichalak \u201cPicha\u201d Srigungvarl. The leafy, wood-paneled, terra-cotta-tiled interiors genuinely took my breath away when I walked in, and the seafood-heavy menu earns its theatrics. A cocktail served in a giant shell is more like a ceviche in tangy tom-yum sauce. There are too many uninventive dips in this city, but the tao jiew lon bucks the trend: light tempura, with an all-too-rare fried baby corn in the mix, ready to be plunked into a creamy coconut sauce. Fried rice is as dramatic as the dining room, with an enormous river prawn split open alongside scallops and squid on a bed of jasmine rice. When I went, they were out of the usual sauce and gave us a green-chile citrus mixture instead, which deserves a permanent spot on the menu. The cocktails are named simply, and the Tomato tasted like a cross between Martinelli\u2019s apple juice and a Bloody Mary, with a tableside application of chile-oil tincture that lets you choose how far to push it toward becoming the latter. \u2014Zach Schiffman\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n
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In the shuffle of constant openings, it\u2019s easy to lose track of both new restaurants and their occasionally high concepts. I fear this fate could befall Sono, a Korean-Italian trattoria (see?) that opened this summer in a deep-set space on First Avenue in the East Village. Nudged out of the spotlight by similarly-timed, similarly-themed, even similarly-named places (more of the attention went to the Korean-ish trattoria-ish Somssi<\/a>), Sono hasn\u2019t gotten its fair shake. Consider this an admission of guilt. I dined there back in June, when chef Sechul Yang \u2014 an alum of Gramercy Tavern<\/a>, Oiji Mi<\/a>, and Maialino \u2014 seemed to still be getting his sea legs. Spaghetti with both bottarga and myeongnan (essentially, a Korean bottarga) was an interesting marriage of eastern and western salt, though a bit soupy; scallop crudo cured in spruce tips with kimchee gel\u00e9e and \u201cBaby Yoda\u201d green cherry tomatoes was sweet but a little mild. (\u201cBaby Yoda\u201d tomatoes: A real thing, it turns out<\/a>.) But there was enough promise to the concept and enough bites I found not only intriguing, but Fall-ishly intriguing (manzo tonnato, done carpaccio-style; slow-roasted lamb shoulder alla Romana) that I\u2019ll be back. Sometimes restaurants are just waiting to find their season. \u2014Matthew Schneier<\/a><\/p>\n
George McNally swears<\/a> his famous father didn\u2019t help build this new restaurant, but dad\u2019s influence is all over the place: the perfect lighting, the (welcoming) bouncer out front, a menu that pulls liberally from New York\u2019s brasseries, trattorias, and diners. The burger \u2014 dry-aged, with the unexpected bite of peppers from the sauce Alg\u00e9rienne \u2014 is better than I thought it to be. So was the rest of the food, like a deeply enjoyable appetizer of ratatouille and a profiterole that had been freshly assembled to ensure the choux pastry didn\u2019t go soggy before it got to the table. The lights get dimmer as the night wears on, the soundtrack of Dire Straits and Strokes-back-when-they-were-still-good gets louder, and the crowd around the bar, where George himself was shaking drinks the night I stopped in, grows to be two or three people deep. It\u2019s a proper downtown party, just as it should be.\u00a0\u00a0\u2014Alan Sytsma<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
The food at Ferguson\u2019s Country \u2014 Ferg\u2019s, as it\u2019s known \u2014 leans heavy: Start with a tower of small craggy biscuits with honey compound butter, pimiento cheese, or Front Porch Fritto. The latter is a highlight, a small tray piled with fried okra, green tomatoes, plump shrimp, and \u2014 crucially \u2014 lemon slices, all perfectly salty and shatteringly crisp. You can get a bigger version of those biscuits as a carrier for a fried chicken sandwich with pickles, another item done well (they know how to fry). Platters include classics like spare ribs and country-fried steak that come with a choice of a side \u2014 also classics like collard greens and buttery grits. Beyond the few wine and beer options, the drinks aren\u2019t fooling around. There are cocktails like a corn martini and Lowcountry iced tea that features vodka, bourbon, gin, and rum, plus a dedicated moonshine menu. The dining room, painted a warm red with exposed brick and wood-planked walls, is casual and unpretentious; it feels a bit worn-in despite the fact that it just opened. \u2014Emma Wartzman<\/a><\/p>\n