headliner
Edith’s
Elyssa Heller, a Chicago native who settled in New York 10 years ago, has built a career in nutrition. She worked in marketing and operations for several companies and then, without quitting her day job, started Edith’s, as a pop-up at Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, selling items such as handmade bagels. Christina Jackson, formerly of Tetsu, and Benjamin Leung, formerly of Manhattan, prepared the food. Last summer, Mrs. Heller, 32, opened a sandwich shop in Williamsburg, also named after her great-aunt. She has now added a nearby market and 25-seat cafe, decorated with Moroccan tiles, where her aim is to showcase the “food of the Jewish diaspora,” as she put it, a mix of Eastern European, Northern African and Middle Eastern as well as Zabar’s style of Jewish American food. The daily cafe menu can include kasha porridge, Russian style syrniki pancakes, labneh parfait with chickpea granola and malawach, jewish pancakes from Yemen. There will be smoked fish and meat, prepared in-house, and many ingredients used in cooking will also be sold. Edith’s will be fully licensed and Ms Heller said she plans to serve wines from North Africa, Eastern Europe and Israel.
312 Leonard Street (Conselyea Street), edithsbk.com.
Opening
Kappo Sono
Chikara Sono, the chef at BBF, has added an eight-seater sofa, Kappo Sono, to the rear of that restaurant, which opened last summer. On Sundays and Mondays, it offers two seats, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Mr. Sono will not accept more than 16 reservations in total for the week.) A $222, nine-course kaiseki menu features seasonal items such as hairy crab with sliced ginger, and monkfish and monkfish liver with yuzu.
177 Ludlow Street (East Houston Street), 646-476-5088, bbfkapposono.com.
Canto West Village
The restaurateur Djamel Omari and his business partner, Allan Chan, opened this trattoria-style place known for its red doors and a flower-adorned Vespa parked right outside. The menu, supervised by Mr. Omari, is devoted to typical dishes: bruschetta, arancini, fritto misto, polpette, pollo Milanese, Caesar salad and pasta Bolognese, alla vongole and carbonara. It is an airy room with exposed brick and wooden ceilings. It opened tentatively in December and now has a liquor license.
117 Perry Street (Greenwich Street), 315-257-5473, cantonyc.com.
baazi
During the pandemic, Gaurav Anand Awadh, his Upper West Side Indian restaurant, has limited and continues to do take-out and delivery. But for on-site dining, indoors and out, he’s renamed the space Baazi and turned it into another restaurant. (The move was delayed from last year to now as shipments of crockery and equipment got stuck en route.) The restaurant, spread over two floors, has been brightened up with a more Mediterranean palette. And Mr. Anand works with Aarthi Sampath, a chef who had been to Junoon. The food tends towards South India, with dishes like urad bean and lentil dumplings, rack of lamb glazed with tamarind sauce and sprinkled with a cumin-cilantro mixture, roasted trout with spicy red masala paste and Goan Cornish chicken flambéed in Indian rum. (Open Monday)
2588 Broadway (97th Street), 646-861-3859, baazi.us.