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Off the Menu

Mochi and Pastries by Day, Cocktails by Night in the West Village

Omar Salahi, left, and Andrea Rodrik of La Maison de Makoto.Credit...Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

LA MAISON DE MAKOTO This dessert shop and lounge, LMDM for short, was announced with some fanfare last fall as Philippe Conticini, the Parisian chef and baker, was to be involved. No more. The owners, Andrea Rodrik, a 21-year-old Swiss-Turkish entrepreneur who has strong opinions about fine baked goods, and the consultant Omar Salahi, who has some experience in New York’s hotel world, have hired a veteran chef, Richard Farnabe, and a former Petrossian pastry chef, Chris Dunbar, to execute their vision. Mr. Rodrik’s idea is to offer mochi, the Asian-style ice cream cloaked in elastic, pounded Japanese rice, along with just two classic French pastries, a Paris-Brest cream-puff ring filled with pastry cream, and a tarte Tropézienne layered with cake and cream. There may be variations down the road. These will be served to eat-in, on velvety gray lounge chairs and at a handsome bar, or to take away during the day. In the evening, the whole place, including the lounge upstairs, will serve cocktails and small plates of cold items like hamachi crudo and tuna tartare, along with the mochi and pastries. Why such a limited menu? “We want a niche, so people will know what to expect,” Mr. Rodrik said, adding, “and they’re very Instagrammable.” You eat with your eyes. (Opens Monday): 74-76 Seventh Avenue South (Barrow Street), lmdmgroup.com.

OMAR AT VAUCLUSE Ahmass Fakahany and Michael White are giving new personality to the bar and upstairs dining room of their lavish Upper East Side French restaurant. It will be run by Omar Hernandez, a native of Venezuela who owns Omar’s La Ranita, a supper club in Greenwich Village, and who is now their collaborator, adding some downtown energy. “I was looking to open uptown, and this came along,” Mr. Hernandez said. “I want to bring more fun to the Upper East Side; it’s having a revival, and I want to be part of that.” He has added a glittering disco ball to the décor. The menu, by Mr. White, will be international, with dishes like a crab salad, chicken tagine, cacio e pepe and a burger. (Wednesday): 100 East 63rd Street, 917-410-2991, omaratvaucluse.com.

GRAIN HOUSE This restaurant based in Little Neck, Queens, with a vast menu that includes eight categories of Sichuan dishes, has ventured into Manhattan. It’s near Columbia University because, it seems, students from China have taken a shine to the restaurant. There’s also a branch in Hempstead, on Long Island, with a wider-ranging Chinese menu: 929 Amsterdam Avenue (105th Street), 212-531-1130, grainhouseny.com.

GEORGE’S After closing for renovations, the former Astor Room, in the space that was the commissary for Paramount Pictures at the Kaufman Astoria Studios, has been renamed in honor of George S. Kaufman, who founded the studios in 1980 and who died last month. The menu was revised to offer tie-ins with movie greats, like six-foot strands of spaghetti with tomato sauce that were a favorite of Rudolph Valentino. (Thursday): 35-11 35th Avenue (35th Street), Astoria, Queens, 718-255-1947, georges.nyc.

JAVELINA Move over, bagel — the “everything” tortilla has come to the Upper East Side. Javelina, the Tex-Mex restaurant, is running a window that serves breakfast tacos from 7:30 to 10 a.m. weekdays, with the everything variety as one option. There’s also a tortilla studded with bits of bacon. Both, or a third option — a plain flour tortilla — come filled with egg, cheese, chorizo, potato or bacon: 1395 Second Avenue (73rd Street), 917-261-7011, javelinatexmex.com.

KAY’S BOUTIQUE CAFE The chef Pavitra Kobkulsuwan owns Kay’s Boutique Breakfast, a popular cafe in Bangkok, and she’s bringing it to New York for a brief run as a pop-up. It will serve brunch all day and will feature her take on French toast, which she makes stuffed and in small logs to eat in or take away. (Thursday through June 30): 240 Mulberry Street (Prince Street), kaysboutiques.com.

EL QUIJOTE This Spanish restaurant in the Chelsea Hotel, which has been serving traditional paellas since 1930, will close on March 30. The hotel is being renovated, and its owners say that work cannot be completed without closing the restaurant, which they also now own. “We definitely plan to reopen it in about six to eight months,” said Ira Drukier of BD Hotels, which is a partner in the Chelsea Hotel company.

DON WAGYU Add Wagyu katsu sando to your vocabulary. The small Japanese sandwich, layering toasted bread and buttery Wagyu beef, is irresistible, served at a few places but about to receive dedicated treatment. This spot, to open in late spring, will be mostly for picnic-ready takeout, but there will be a few seats for devouring on the premises: 28 South William Street (Broad Street).

ALL DAY AT BREAKERS Leyla Marchetto, an owner of Navy Beach in Montauk, N.Y., has taken over the cafe in the Breakers Montauk, a boutique motel just west of the village. She plans to open on May 11 with Robert Sieber, formerly at Surf Lodge in Montauk and Jungsik in Manhattan, as executive chef: Breakers Montauk, 769 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk, N.Y.

SEAMORE’S This group of restaurants, specializing in the sustainable local catch, will add another location to its portfolio. It will take over the 7,000-square-foot space in the Brookfield Place development at Battery Park City currently occupied by Amada from the Philadelphia chef Jose Garces, which will close at the end of the month. Michael Chernow, an owner of Seamore’s, just opened what is his largest place to date, in Dumbo. Spoke too soon. The new restaurant will be even larger and is to open in July: 250 Vesey Street (West Street).

SADELLE’S The big SoHo restaurant featuring New York “appetizing” specialties like lox and bagels and whitefish salad, as interpreted by Major Food Group, will open a branch in Las Vegas in December. It will be front and center in the Bellagio Resort & Casino, a subsidiary of MGM Resorts International, replacing the former Cafe Bellagio, near the lobby whose ceiling is covered with Dale Chihuly’s glass flower sculptures. It is also one of the first restaurants outside New York City for Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick of Major Food Group, which owns the Grill, the Pool and the Lobster Club in the Seagram Building, various Parm restaurants and Carbone, among others. The Las Vegas restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. Its elaborate multitiered smoked fish “towers,” a staple for brunch, have Vegas written all over them. Like the New York Sadelle’s, it will also have a retail bakery: Bellagio, 3600 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas.

PETROSSIAN, the elegant, expensive Midtown restaurant run by the caviar company, has closed for renovations after 34 years, and is expected to reopen. Its separate boutique for caviar, pastries and other high-end products at 911 Seventh Avenue (58th Street), remains open and serves breakfast, lunch, brunch and snacks.

DAVID BURKE is bringing his signature creations like well-spiced angry lobster and cheesecake lollipops to the stately Garden City Hotel in Garden City, N.Y., this spring. He will oversee the menus at the new Red Salt Room by David Burke and the King Bar by David Burke, and, soon after, the Patio Bar.

ERIC KORSH has parted ways with Racines NY in TriBeCa in the wake of serious allegations of misconduct with employees when he was at North End Grill. For now, the sous-chef, Mariana Mateos, has taken over as executive chef and will be in the kitchen until the end of the month, when she leaves to open a restaurant in France.

A correction was made on 
March 20, 2018

An earlier version of this article misidentified the Las Vegas branch of Sadelle’s as Major Food Group’s first restaurant outside New York. The group has opened branches of Carbone in Las Vegas and in Hong Kong.

A correction was made on 
March 21, 2018

An earlier version of this article, using information from a publicist, misstated Omar Hernandez’s role in Omar at Vaucluse. He is a collaborator, not a partner.

How we handle corrections

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section D, Page 6 of the New York edition. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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