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NOVEMBER

Twice the Spice
Two hot chefs turn the meat market into an Asian-flavored street market.

Star chefs Gray Kunz and Jean-Georges Vongerichten shine brightly enough on their own; as a team, they’re a culinary supernova. It’s ironic, then, that when it comes to revealing details about their impending joint venture in the meatpacking district, tentatively called Spice Market, they choose to leave their adoring public in the dark. “We want it to be a huge surprise,” says Kunz, who’s been casting about for just such a project ever since vacating his lofty four-star perch at Lespinasse five years ago. Maybe he doesn’t want to jinx it. After all, there’ve been other grand plans that never materialized, and the occasional rumor of the elusive Kunz checking out Tribeca real estate or looking to sign a lease at Lever House. In the meantime, he wrote a cookbook. And then Phil Suarez, Vongerichten’s partner, suggested he team up with Kunz. The idea was to bring two classically trained, Asia-obsessed, astoundingly inventive chefs together in a space big enough for both of them. The menu, Kunz concedes under duress, will explore Asian street-market food, a vast realm the chefs spent the last two weeks of August voraciously exploring firsthand. Implementing their exotic discoveries will be executive chef Stanley Wong, a Vongerichten associate since his days running Vong in Hong Kong before landing here to open the Pan-Asian TanDa. With a trio like that, pre-opening buzz is inevitable, Kunz’s reserve notwithstanding. “We’re trying to keep it very, very low-key,” he says. Good luck. —Robin Raisfeld

• Details: Spice Market, November (29–35 Ninth Avenue; no phone yet).

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The Best of the Rest of November
Marco Canora (Craft, Craftbar) steps out from Tom Colicchio’s shadow at Hearth (403 East 12th Street), where he’ll infuse his signature seasonal-American style with Italian influences in dishes like duck pappardelle with black olives and red wine. . . .

After departing Park Avenue Cafe, the inventive David Burke teams up with Bellini’s Donatella Arpaia; their David Burke Donatella (133 East 61st Street) showcases his Italian- accented American fare and her enlightened, unstuffy service. . . .

At the sprawling Megu (62 Thomas Street; 212-964-7777), dinner is cooked over specialty charcoal imported from Japan for its purifying properties and historical significance. . . .

Mr. “Brooklyn Global” turns meatpacking mogul: Zak Pelaccio (of Williamsburg’s Chickenbone Cafe) decamps for 5 Ninth (5 Ninth Avenue), a three-story brownstone equipped with two fireplaces and a garden.