Spring Fling – Ten To Try 2012

After a long, harsh winter, New Yorkers finally have a chance to embrace a new dining season and, best of all, dine outdoors.  This spring, it’s time for all of us to get out and discover new ingredients, neighborhoods, restaurants, and potential spring flings.  The five boroughs offer plenty of both, though we can only guarantee the promise of food.  While Eataly readies a rooftop beer garden, David Bouley just unveiled Brushstroke, a long-awaited homage to traditional Japanese cooking.  On a warm night, you can take a field trip to Cafe Habana in Fort Greene and sip mojitos outdoors at shaded picnic tables with colorful umbrellas or have a romantic spring fling (and oven-baked pizzas) at Apizz on the Lower East Side.   That’s just a glimpse of the possibilites this season…

Porsena
Address: 21 E. Seventh St., btwn. Second and Third avenues
Phone: (212) 228-4923
Sara Jenkins is quietly building an empire of Italian eateries (Veloce, Porchetta) in the East Village.  Her latest venture, Porsena, is our favorite of the bunch, because she’s devoted most of the menu to pasta and she ranks among the best in her field.  Where to begin? There’s homemade pasta twists in a “sea of cheese” (canolicchie con una marea de formaggio), a knock-out version of spaghetti with clams, and orrechiete (ears) with spicy lamb sausage and greens.

Hibino
Address: 333 Henry St., near Pacific Street (Brooklyn)
Phone: (718) 260-8052
Hibino may seem like a sleepy Japanese spot in Cobble Hill, but with its housemade tofu and daily specials, it’s worthy of destination dining status.  In fact, hibino translates as daily, so expect hyper-fresh and seasonal cooking. There’s a rotating selection of obananzi, or Japanese tapas, with seasonal offerings, like Hawaiian pumpkin swordfish sushi, soft shell crab rolls, and simmered tofu with shredded beef. Because the menu changes so frequently, it’s hard to get tired of eating here

Eataly
Address: 200 Fifth Ave., near 23rd Street
Phone: (646) 398-5100
Just when you thought this Italian food hall couldn’t possibly get any bigger, it’s about to do just that. This expansive, Flatiron marketplace already houses four restaurants, a cooking school and specialty retail shops.  In just a few days, Eataly will also boast a rooftop beer garden with 300 seats and an extensive selection of Italian craft beers.  Grab a date or a beer aficionado to sample imported brews alongside Batali-stamped (and beer-friendly) dishes, like fried shitake mushrooms and pork shoulder with cabbage.  Between the beer, food menu and the view of the Empire State Building and Madison Square Park, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect evening. The only real drawback are the huge crowds Eataly draws daily.

Apizz
Address: 217 Eldridge St., near Stanton Street
Phone: (212) 253-9199
Though Apizz has been around for years now, this cozy, low-key spot never gets old. Come spring, we look forward to a revisit to John La Femina and Frank DeCarlo’s Lower East Side eatery to savor the rustic, Italian fare.  Just like Peasant, its sister restaurant, a large, wood-burning oven is not only the centerpiece of the dining room, but also of the menu.  In fact, everything on Apizz’s menu is kissed by the oven, including the signature, margherita pizza and wood-roasted mushrooms with polenta cakes.  To fully reap the rewards of the season, try the whole-roasted fish, served over an arugula-tomato salad or the oven-seared ribeye.

Takashi
Address: 456 Hudson St., near Barrow Street
Phone: (212) 414-2929
Nothing breaks the ice on a date, quite like “The Tongue Experience” at this beef lover’s paradise in Greenwich Village.  Takashi’s unusual tasting menu features three different cuts of beef tongue, all cooked on a grill built right into your table.  If that’s not enough of a conversation starter, this Japanese spot serves both cooked and uncooked beef, the likes of liver sashimi and beef tartare on sushi rice.  The exotic menu is the work of Takashi Inoue, an Osaka-born chef who wanted to recreate a traditional Japanese barbecue experience, called yakiniku. His restaurant is the perfect place for a culinary adventure or a foodie date.

Alta
Address: 64 W. 10th St., btwn. Fifth and Sixth Avenues
Phone: (212) 505-7777
A tapas bar is hardly a novelty these days, but Alta manages to keep the genre fresh by serving small plates with influences that span from South America to Asia.  (The candle-lit, subterranean dining room doesn’t hurt things either.)  Start with an interesting Spanish red wine and sample small plates, like fried goat cheese drizzled with lavender-infused honey, grilled grape leaves stuffed with chicken confit, or beef carpaccio anointed with horseradish crème fraiche.  Not your typical tapas joint, Alta’s menu also features decadent offerings, like seared foie gras.  This warm, buttery sliver of liver is served on a buttery slice of brioche and layered with diced pistachios, mango ginger chutney and bee pollen.

Flex Mussels
Address: 154 W. 13th St., btwn. Sixth and Seventh avenues;
Phone: 174 E. 82nd Street between Lexington and Third avenues
Sharing a bowl of steamed mussels is a great, interactive dinner date.  Think about it: Two strangers rescuing plump crustaceans from their shells, then sopping up the remaining sauce with bread and warm, salty French fries. If you’re tired of France’s traditional moules frites, head to Flex Mussels for a choice of 20 different versions, inspired by cuisines from all over the world. There’s a Mexican rendition of mussels, mingled with chorizo and chipotle adobo, while the Portuguese comes with linguica sausage and clams. Still, our favorite is the Thai mussels, served in a coconut curry broth, redolent with lots of lemongrass.

Habana Outpost
Address: 757 Fulton St., near South Portland Avenue (Fort Greene)
Phone: (718) 858-9500
One of spring’s greatest pleasures is dining al fresco and no one does it quite like this Habana Outpost in Fort Greene.  Where else in the city can you sip mojitos along picnic benches or catch a Sunday night movie screening, or have a smoothie made in a stationary bike-powered blender.  In fact, the entire restaurant runs on solar power.  As for the Cuban cooking, there’s a killer ear of corn, rubbed in mayo & cotijia cheese, pressed Cuban sandwiches, and gobs of fresh guacamole.

Traif
Address: 229 South 4th St., near Havemeyer Street (Williamsburg)
Phone: (347) 844-9578
If you haven’t made it to this unusual, Williamsburg restaurant, it’s time to try something totally unkosher.  Traif actually means food that defies Jewish dietary laws, such as pork and shellfish.  (If you are kosher, don’t bother.)  For the rest of us, there’s some creative, spring dishes, like braised pork belly with avocado and corn, seared scallops with creamed corn, and bacon-studded donuts for dessert.

Brushstroke
Address: 264 W 40th St., btwn. Seventh and Eighth avenues
Phone: (212) 391-2370
Ten years in the making, Brushstroke is David Bouley’s homage to traditional Japanese cooking.  A French chef in love with Japanese cooking, Bouley has teamed up with Tsuji Culinary Institute to open this gorgeous, Tribeca spot, furbished with honeyed wood, 20,000 paper books, and a beautiful reclaimed sushi bar.  There’s a sushi and a la carte menu, but the real focus here are the seasonal tasting menus, prepared by some of Japan’s best young chefs.  The menu features dishes, the likes of stewed Wagyu beef, Dungeness crab rice porridge, seared toro tuna as well as well-crafted Japanese cocktails.