Abigail Café & Wine Bar   (Photo: Chris Mottalini)

(Photo: Chris Mottalini)

Cabrito
50 Carmine St., nr. Bedford St. 212-929-5050
Gone are the white tiles and Japanese-inspired tempura that defined BarFry, Josh DeChellis’s brave if ill-fated foray into deep-frying territory. The entire space has been redone with a Mexican motif, from the Talavera tiles to the stuccoed walls and hand-punched tin, and a Mexican menu to match, courtesy of chef David Schuttenberg, late of Fatty Crab. Scheduled to open this weekend, the new Cabrito styles itself as a laid-back bar heavy on the tequilas and mezcals, with food hearty enough to sop it all up: Baby goat, the eponymous dish, is rubbed with sour orange, garlic, and chile, then slow-roasted in a banana leaf and served with citrus-tequila salsa. There are tongue tacos, cuitlacoche huaraches, and Mexican sandwiches called cemitas, plus red-chile-braised beef ribs and carnitas Uruapan, or pork confit, chopped and served by the pound with house-made corn tortillas. Weather permitting, outdoor seating will be available out back, and a Mexican brunch is coming soon.

Abigail Café & Wine Bar
807 Classon Ave., at St. John’s Pl., Prospect Heights; 718-399-3200
Camaje owner and chef Abigail Hitchcock majored in botany in college, so it’s pretty fitting that she has situated her second restaurant mere blocks from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Hitchcock and her husband and partner, Jason Noble, plan to open Abigail Café & Wine Bar this weekend, with an all-day menu extending from morning coffee and muffins to lunch and dinner small plates like asparagus-and-early-garlic soup, and panini filled with blue cheese, leeks, and pear. There will be a kids’ menu, house-made sodas concocted from syrups like rhubarb-lemon mixed with seltzer, plus heat-and-eat meals to go. And like her tiny Camaje in Greenwich Village, Hitchcock’s new café is outfitted with coffee tables and couches; customers are welcome to linger with free Wi-Fi or listen to live music and poetry readings in the basement lounge.

Related:

• Archive: “Restaurant Openings & Buzz”
• Table of Contents: May 12, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!