Restaurants

Eater NY – All The New York City Restaurant, Bar, and Nightlife Blog

• The Best Cake Slices in NYC, According to Food Baby

  by Mike Chau on June 9, 2025 at 9:18 pm

  @foodbabyny picks favorite slices, including chocolate blackout cake, birthday cake, 24-layer cake, and more Several times a week, someone asks where to get the best cake: It’s such a common and important question that I was excited to tackle this map so we can have a definitive list to link people to from now on. Let’s make things clear: The cake slice map is not an exhaustive list of the best slices of cake in New York. That is a whole separate undertaking, mostly consisting of composed desserts and hard-to-obtain cake at trendy and or high-end restaurants throughout the city (such as Yellow Rose, Claud, Bar Bête, and so on). This is a list of businesses that you can walk into and leave with a highly satisfying slice in a matter of minutes. I tried slices from 30 or so places over the span of a month, sometimes repeating places to try different specials, and concluded that these are the best of the best. We’ve updated this map to include cake from Somedays, Welcome Home, and the Good Batch. Dropped for now it’s Milk Bar and Ladybird Bakery.

• Best Dishes NY Editors Ate This Week: June 9

  by Eater Staff on June 9, 2025 at 6:53 pm

  The half-chicken at Claud. | Melissa McCart Pizza, Filipino fried chicken, and half-chicken With Eater editors dining out sometimes several times a day, we come across lots of standout dishes, and we don’t want to keep any secrets. Check back for the best things we ate this week. Half chicken with lovage and pickled peppers at Claud I’m on a mission, it seems, to try every half- and whole chicken on menus around town: so it was a given that we’d order the half-chicken at Claud during a recent visit. It was a hit. So juicy and so savory, the dish is dressed with lovage and a shower of pickles. There’s plenty of brine without overwhelming the dish, but make sure you order (housemade) bread for the plate. (Maybe practice restraint if you’re saving room for the restaurant’s famous slice of chocolate cake.) 90 E. 10th Street, at Third Avenue, East Village — Melissa McCart, lead editor, Northeast Nadia Chaudhury/Eater NY Pizza pizza from Mama’s Too. Pizza slices at Mama’s Too After writing about Mama’s Pizza closing on the Upper West Side last month, I figured it was time for me to check out the founders’ grandson’s downtown slice spinoff Mama’s Too. I walked past the very long time outside of L’industrie Pizzeria to this unassuming pizza shop, quickly ordered my new slices, and found a seat in the crowded space. I got one of each format: the Angry Nonna square slice, a nice sweet-savory combination thanks to the slightly zingy hot honey and chile oil; and then the house slice, which was a perfect rendition of what a fresh pizza slice should be (together for $11.25 with tax and tip). I regret not getting a sandwich, but there’s always next time. 323-325 Bleecker Street, near Christopher Street, West Village — Nadia Chaudhury, editor, Northeast Stephanie Wu/Eater NY Kanto fried chicken at Naks, served with garlic aioli. Kanto fried chicken at Naks Naks, the Filipino restaurant from the Unapologetic Foods team, has switched over to an a la carte menu for the entire restaurant (the main room was previously reserved for the $135 tasting menu-style kamayan). The new format means groups can try much more food, and the standout for us was the Kanto fried chicken ($16) — boneless chicken that managed to be incredibly crispy, hot, and tender even after we went back for seconds 20 minutes after it was served. Don’t miss the grilled lemon soda pork belly ($16) or the clay-pot adobo rice, ($32) either. 201 First Avenue, between East 12th and 13th streets, East Village — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief Connor Reid/Eater The bison strip loin at Lost and Found. Bison strip loin at Lost and Found This past Sunday, a group of friends and I were lucky enough to grab a last-minute reservation at the very intimate and often-crowded Lost and Found in Long Beach. It’s a very unassuming spot that never disappoints and keeps you coming back with its seasonal changes and frequent menu updates. I was pleasantly surprised to see a bison strip loin, which came dressed with an incredibly vibrant house-made chimichurri sauce that blew me away. I also snuck bites of my wife’s bistro burger, which never fails to deliver. Pro-tip: Do not skip the charred cheesecake. 951 West Beech Street, Long Beach — Connor Reid, senior video producer Tuna sandwich at Bottega Crown Heights daytime offerings leveled up in a big way this summer. First, Lisbonata, the Portuguese egg tart pop-up, opened an order-through-the-window permanent location. (The yuzu and pistachio flavors are a must!) Then, on the other side of Eastern Parkway, Bottega, a coffee shop with food, is also new. It’s here that I had some of my favorite sandwiches of late. We went for the chicken Milanese with broccoli rabe and provolone, a fancy take on the Italian classic; as well as the tuna with pickled red onion, marinated artichoke, fried capers, fontina, pistou rosé, and lemon aioli on griddled milk bread, basically an adult tuna melt (both $16). Venture to both businesses on a summer Friday and you’ll have the ideal lunch bang bang. 619 St. Johns Place and 215 Rogers Avenue — Emma Orlow, editor, Northeast Beth Landman Spaghetti with seafood at Bar Italia Now that the weather is heating up, one of my favorite places to people-watch is Bar Italia on Madison Avenue, where I just spotted Vera Wang and lots of decked-out shoppers. I don’t usually think of pasta as a light choice, with the exception of this dish ($42), made with incredibly sweet fresh cherry tomatoes simmered for hours before whole filets of Mediterranean fish are added. Chef Dennis Franceschini always has seasonal specials, and if you get there in the next week or two, you can still catch the oversized white asparagus — sweet, nutty, and so soft you can cut it with a fork. 768 Madison Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets — Beth Landman, contributing writer, Northeast

• A New 200-Seat Boat Bar Anchors in Hudson Yards

  by Melissa McCart on June 9, 2025 at 4:53 pm

  Sailor’s Choice Sailor’s Choice from the Grand Banks duo channels a New England seafood shack Sailor’s Choice, a breezy seafood bar from Alex and Miles Pincus, opens today at 350 11th Avenue, at 30th Street. It joins a wave of new restaurants in Hudson Yards — a second location of Locanda Verde and Papa San, the Nikkei-style izakaya — following a fleet of post-pandemic failed ventures, including Thomas Keller’s TAK Room. Built around a vintage fishing boat-turned-centerpiece bar, the seasonal Sailor’s Choice is among the more chill options for drinking and snacking in one of Manhattan’s most corporate neighborhoods, where offices like Time Warner and Meta reside. Sailor’s Choice is one of a handful of mostly nautical-themed restaurants from the brothers’ hospitality group, Crew, which includes New York boat bar Grand Banks near Tribeca, West Village waterfront Drift In, boat bar Pilot near Brooklyn Bridge, Island Oyster at Governors Island, and land-based Holywater. There’s also High Tide in Dumbo and Fairweather in the High Line Hotel. This new project also features a boat — albeit one that’s docked on land. The concept came together quickly after Alex Pincus gave a speech at a Hudson River Park gala and was approached by a Hudson Yards executive. “At first,” Pincus says, “it didn’t feel like my scene,” he said of Hudson Yards. But a Monday morning visit changed his mind. “It was packed. I hadn’t been there since before COVID. It felt so alive — and I thought, how cool would it be to drop a proper New England seafood shack right in the middle of all this?” The name Sailor’s Choice comes from the brothers’ post-sailing ritual: a cold beer poured over ice. That unfussy vibe is what the Pincus brothers are going for in a restaurant that can seat around 200 people. As far as the scene, the vintage fishing boat (made by Hinckley, loaned to the brothers by the fancy mariners’ club, Barton & Gray) is surrounded by counter seating and a large deck with yellow-and-white striped umbrellas and nautical-looking chairs. A second bar, built into a retro Airstream, handles cocktail service. Sailor’s Choice The menu leans into New England seafood shack offerings, with a lobster BLT ($27), oysters ($23 to $29 for six; $43 to $55 a dozen), caviar tater tots ($27), fish and chips ($29), and a surf club sandwich ($21). Drinks range from a Tropicalia with watermelon and vodka to spritzes. They include “yacht club” offerings like gin and tonics and martinis ($18 to $21); wines by the glass or bottles, and beers — including any frosty brew over-ice with lime for $7. Sailor’s Choice

• Eddie Huang Is Back Cooking in New York — And Wants to Open a Restaurant

  by Tierney Plumb on June 9, 2025 at 1:42 pm

  Eddie Huang is cooking at the Flower Shop this summer. | Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for IMDb He’ll be at the Flower Shop through the summer Chef Eddie Huang, an author, TV personality, and filmmaker who jump-started his culinary career with his Taiwanese bun shop BaoHaus in 2009, is back cooking in the neighborhood where it all started. This month, Huang is headed to the Flower Shop, a Lower East Side pub, located at 107 Eldridge Street, where he will serve a comeback modern Chinese menu through the summer. It’s a test run for a restaurant that Huang hopes to open in New York, telling Eater that he is actively looking for the right space to lease. The seasonal residency, he’s calling Gazebo, features a three-course dinner ($80 per person) that is “fueled uniquely on olive oil from his wife’s family field in Greece,” per a statement. The prix fixe includes dan dan noodles dressed with cherrystone clams and pancetta, lion’s head meatballs, and whole-tail lobster toast with Hainan-style lobster claws over rice. It’s a switch-up from Flower Shop’s typical menu, a lineup of maitake rigatoni, shrimp tacos, and pan-roasted cauliflower steak. Gazebo runs from June to September, on Wednesdays to Fridays, with seatings at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Its inaugural night, Wednesday, June 11, is already sold out. “I’m definitely looking for a space,” says Huang, who’s condensing his current search to a 20-block radius of LES to Tribeca. But because of uncertain economic times, “it’s silly to sign a lease right now,” so he doesn’t anticipate an opening until 2026. In the meantime, the pop-up marks Huang’s culinary return to his all-time, “til-I-die” neighborhood in New York. Two years after its LES debut in 2009, BaoHaus relocated to the East Village into a storefront off of Union Square, until 2020 when it closed during the early days of the pandemic (there was also briefly a BaoHaus Los Angeles, which is also now closed). Xiao Ye, another Lower East Side endeavor, also closed after a short run. In the past five years, Huang has not publicly put his name behind another New York restaurant, focusing on the entertainment world. Eddie Huang Iberico and clams join forces in a quesadilla. He’s officially a NY resident again, having moved back from LA with his wife and toddler this year. “The wildfires were a sign to go home,” he says. The Hollywood industry can quickly become a complacent one, he adds. “You get kind of sick waiting around for the phone to ring,” he says. “Restaurants and food are the things I love. So it’s nice to come back to do physical work.” Dubbed a “dance music-influenced” menu, Gazebo refers to the Beirut-born, well-traveled singer who rose to fame during the Italo-disco music craze of the 1980s. Huang specifically pays homage to his first hit single, “Masterpiece” — a hit in Euro-Asian dance circles — which was released the same year he was born (and one he now sings to his son every night), according to his personal Substack. Look for menu changes each month, which include the results of recent experimental dishes he’s been working on at home. A quesadilla was a “happy accident,” he says; the only way his son would eat his Iberico and clam stew is if it joined forces with his favorite food. “So many people serve raw seafood on a plate,” says Huang, and his Peruvian-style ceviche stands out with Hokkaido scallops, Marcona almonds, and tiger’s milk, which speaks to his time with Lima’s legendary chef Javier Wong. There’s a reason for this particular pop-up location. Flower Shop opened in 2017 with big-name money behind it: Original investors included skateboard legend Tony Hawk and William Tisch, the son of New York Giants’ co-owner Steve Tisch. Huang’s fresh new partnership with the Flower Shop stemmed from a meeting that his NY fashion designer friend, Maxwell Osborne, set up with its co-owner, Dylan Hales (Randolph Beer). Flower Shop, which features a lower-level bar with a pool table, jukebox, and pink fireplace, added a second location in Austin last fall. A former Cooking Channel and Vice host, Huang detailed his industry-hopping life as a lawyer to chef in a 2013 autobiography titled Fresh Off the Boat. His culinary fame that followed sparked an ABC show of the same name, which starred Randall Park and Constance Wu, and ended after six seasons in 2020. Most recently, he made Vice is Broke, a documentary on the downfall of the media company, where he formerly hosted a culinary show. Momofuku founder and fellow Northern Virginia native David Chang, who has hosted Huang on his podcast, gave the forthcoming pop-up a shout-out on Instagram last week.

• Brandy From New York? This Upstate Distillery Is Counting on It.

  by Mike Diago on June 9, 2025 at 11:30 am

  Brandy from Klocke Estate. | Eric Medsker/Kocke Estate Brandy may not be flying off the shelves in the U.S. yet, but Klocke Estate owners are playing a long game Since the brandy distillery Klocke Estate opened last summer in Claverack, New York, the restaurant has been the draw. It’s dazzling, situated on a hilltop above 160 acres of farmland, orchards, and vineyards. The seasonal American menu from chef Becky Kempter shows off leek croquettes, a spring cavatelli with ramps, asparagus, peas, and mains like roast chicken or lamb shank. Klocke deserves its spot among the handful of mid-Hudson Valley restaurants that are destinations. Of those, it’s undoubtedly the most luxurious. In the dining room, chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling windows cast soft light over myriad textures: crushed velvet and William Morris-style floral designs on the walls, a marble fireplace with a Victorian tapestry hanging above, and exposed wood beams. Tables are situated around a custom glass cabinet in the middle of the room which displays co-owner John Frishkopf’s library of brandies, Armagnacs, and Calvados. It’s a lush setting to observe the sage-colored Catskills in the distance. Klocke Estate The view from the bar at Klocke Estate. Still, the restaurant, Frishkopf says, primarily serves to “set the table for our brandy.” At the moment, brandy isn’t flying off the shelves in the U.S, but Frishkopf and his husband, Brett Mattingly, are playing a long game to establish regional brandy’s preeminence. It already has provenance: Laird’s Applejack in New Jersey, founded in 1780, is the very first distillery in the United States (It’s also one of the few legacy brands today run by a woman); And there’s evidence that a man named Jakob Planck brought several stills from Holland to the northern Hudson Valley, around the time brandy was first being exported from Europe by Dutch fleets, in 1638. The state of brandy in the U.S. doesn’t daunt the founders. “Eventually, the brandy we make here in Claverack,” says Caleb Gregg, director of farming and production, “will sit beside the world’s great brandies, specifically Cognac caliber.” Frishkopf, a Boston native, was first inspired to make brandy on the plum and apricot orchards of friends’ estates while based in Prague early in his finance career. Returning to the Northeast in his 40s, he wanted to make brandy commercially. Klocke Estate The spirits are stored in a squat, partially subterranean post-and-beam storage barn with thick straw-bale walls and a deep, sloping zinc roof just down the hill from the restaurant. Klocke Estate The estate brandy matures inside the barrels for three to thirty years, depending on the batch. The region is one of a few places, he says, where conditions for growing cider apples and grapes were always ideal— for brandy, not for wine. Brandy grapes are harvested earlier than wine grapes, when they have a sugar content (or brix) between 16 and 18 percent. That relatively low sugar produces an alcohol content between eight and ten percent after fermentation, ensuring it will have greater contration of flavor after distillation to 70 percent. Additionally, lower sugar levels result in higher tannin and acid content, according to Gregg, providing the necessary structure for brandy’s prolonged aging process. In 2017, Frishkopf and Mattingly purchased the property. With the help of veteran distiller Dan Farber in California, Cornell University, and expert wine and apple farmers around New York State, they selected 43 varieties of organic cider apples and nine organic white grapes, all suited to the climate and terroir of the Hudson Valley. Mattingly, an MIT grad, raised on a family farm, designed a master plan for planting using a permaculture approach that weaves sustainability and self-sufficiency into the design. In 2020, the team planted the first trees and vines. William Geddes/Klocke Estate The lush restaurant dining room at Klocke Estate. Despite that most apple growing in the East has moved south due to risks like fireblight, the team remains committed to organic farming — with an eye to bring back cider apples that used to grow in the region for hundreds of years — with the help of old and new technology. They monitor digital wind, temperature, and sun on large flat screens. They implant organic bacteria cultures to battle fireblight, powdery and downy mildew, and other bacterial infections. They position black locust posts where eagles and red-tailed hawks can sit and hunt larger pests, like voles. As of this writing, three successful grape harvest and one apple harvest have been pressed and fermented into wine and cider, and distilled in a copper Alembic Charentais still imported from Cognac. Right after distillation, the spirits are transferred to barrels made from aged French oak, where they will mature for another three to thirty years, depending on the batch. “It takes patience,” according to Gregg. “… and we may find out, in 25 years, that the grapes we’re growing are better suited for younger brandies, for example. That’s the fun part.” Consumers might not try the estate’s best brandies for decades. Perhaps they’ll keep improving long after Frishkopf and Mattingly retire. With hope, they’ve invested in infrastructure that will outlast them — including the storage facility, the still, and above all, people like Gregg, who, in his late 20s, manages all aspects of brandy production. While customers wait for the first batch of brandy, Frishkopf sees his role as a teacher and host. In addition to the brandy library, they’re also producing vermouth. Klocke currently sells their white vermouth and sweet red vermouths under the Brevis label, three ready-to-drink cocktails—an appletini, a brandy Manhattan, and a brandy Old-Fashioned—three eaux de vie, and what they call an unoaked brandy, or the Klocke Estate 00. Klocke Estate A sunset view of Klocke Estate. Frishkopf says that their customers will be able to taste the evolution of their brandy over the years, which reinforces the time theme as the through line of the brand. Frishkopf points to the Dutch word for clock as inspiration for the name; the vermouth label Brevis, named after the Latin word for brief; and the ready-made cocktail label, Flyback, named after the term for when a chronograph returns to zero. During dinner service at Klocke, diners often catch magnificent sunsets. It quickly became a tradition for everyone to emerge onto the west-facing patio with their drinks for twenty minutes to stare toward the mountains where Rip Van Winkle mythically fell asleep for twenty years, across land that has fallen in and out of cultivation for generations. Often, the waitstaff and cooks join them, signaling there’s no need to rush.