(Photo: Courtesy of the Hall Company)

After eight years of working for David Bouley, interspersed with the obligatory stages in Spain’s avant-garde kitchens and a stint studying in Japan, Mexican-born, Chicago-bred chef César Ramirez plans to open Bar Blanc in Greenwich Village. His contemporary seasonal cuisine, grounded in French technique with Italian and Japanese accents, may be upscale—black sea bass with baby bok choy, soy beans, dashi, and Bibb-lettuce sauce, for instance—but the setting will be casual. “I love flavor,” says Ramirez, “but I don’t believe in stuffiness.”

Bar Blanc, 142 W. 10th St., nr. Waverly Pl. November.

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