Condos Eating Up Ethnic Restaurants; Eleven Madison Park Chef Bringing SomeAstoria: The café Oleput at 31-13 Ditmars has reopened, and they might have a liquor license. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: Krumbs (or whatever the bakery will soon be called) is now open at 154 Vanderbilt between Willoughby and Myrtle, and mini–carrot cakes seem like a hit. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Flushing: The legendary Chinese food court at J & L mall may be closed for good after a brief shutter this summer. The condo curse strikes again. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Hell’s Kitchen: Kyotofu’s hosting a winter sake pairing Monday with the theme “An Evening at an Izakaya, a traditional Japanese Pub.” It includes real food like miso-grilled ten-grain yaki-onigiri rice balls and shiitake-and-pork-yuba dumplings. [Grub Street]
Park Slope: A new reason to join the CSA: Find a tiny frog in your lettuce and get a hilarious feature in the Daily News. [Gothamist]
Upper East Side: A San Francisco restaurant critic goes to Park Avenue Winter and other top-billed New York restaurants and admits being “struck by a trend that seems to be taking root [here]: Market-driven menus. Of course, this is common to the Bay Area.” [Between Meals/San Francisco Chronicle]
Upper West Side: Eleven Madison Park chef Kerry Heffernan has outfitted the old Cafe Botanica with mirrors and glass to prepare for the opening of South Gate, his new restaurant slated for a mid-February opening. [Restaurant Girl]
Neighborhood Watch
Spanish Harlem’s Caminito in the Path of ‘Carlito’s Way’Chelsea: The owner of now-defunct French Oven in Chelsea Market has opened a bakery that, despite its name of Madeleine, actually specializes in macarons; there will be at least eighteen flavors by next week. [NYT]
East Village: A wine bar with a garden, opening in Avalon Bowery Place, may foreshadow the successful outcome of plans to create a French-style pedestrian alley in the area. [Eater]
Flushing: The Chinese food court J&L Mall has reopened now that Con Ed has turned the electricity back on. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Harlem: The uptown outpost of Maroons is slated to open the end of September. [Uptown Flavor]
Spanish Harlem: The space now filled by Argentine steakhouse Caminito (found in this week’s Openings) once housed a barbershop featured in the film Carlito’s Way. [NYS]