Grub Street

Florence Fabricant reports that acclaimed Philadelphia chef Jose Garces will open his first New York City restaurant at Brookfield Place, the enormous mixed-use complex about to debut in lower Manhattan. The Garces restaurant will join incoming branches of Num Pang Sandwich Shop, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Tartinery, Dos Toros Taqueria, Dig Inn, Umami Burger, CHOP'T, Skinny Pizza, Little Muenster, Olive's, Mighty Quinn's, and Blue Ribbon Sushi, as well as an outpost of Major Food Group's Parm and Le District, a jumbo French market stocked with groceries and prepared foods that Eater suggests will be restaurateur Peter Poulakakos's answer to Eataly.

Hundreds of people (including Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg) got to try Dominique Ansel's much-discussed chocolate-chip-cookie-and-organic-milk "shots" at SXSW over the weekend, and now the cronut inventor will begin serving the snack this Friday at his Spring Street bakery in Soho. Here's everything you need to know before the big New York launch.

The restaurant mini-chain, which opened in Syracuse in 1983 before smoking out Rochester, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, will open its first location outside of the northeast U.S. next spring, in Chicago. A company spokesperson confirms that Dinosaur's ninth restaurant will debut in 2015, in a former nightclub space on West Weed Street. The restaurant group, which previously announced it was looking at a number of new cities in which to serve its signature ribs and pulled pork, opened its first Brooklyn location last summer. [WSJ, Related]

Big news: The two food luminaries above are helming this year's big event, which has a "Sounds of the City" theme that will explore connections between the intersecting worlds of cooking and music. Matt and Ted Lee are hosting the foundation's media awards, taking over for Allen, who clearly has a full plate as Master of Ceremonies. As Gala Chef Chair, Batali is set to preside over a selection of chefs charged with creating "dishes inspired by their favorite sounds," but we're also hoping he'll take the stage before dinner to belt out a tune or two. The Beard Foundation's Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception will take place on Monday, May 5 at Lincoln Center, while the nonprofit's Books, Broadcast and Journalism Awards goes down on Friday, May 2. Nominees for all categories are set to be announced at Chicago restaurant The Publican on Tuesday, March 18. [Earlier, Related]

While raw bars have blown up around town, the cooked-oyster dish hasn't necessarily seen the same resurgence of popularity. But even if they aren't a menu must-have, warm oysters are still popping up at places like Narcissa, Extra Fancy, Empire Diner, and Dover. Whether you like them baked, fried, broiled, or served with corn-bread stuffing, Grub has you covered with these ten excellent hot-oyster dishes.

For the past few weekends, Thomas Carter and Ignacio Mattos have been quietly serving brunch to anyone fortunate — or nosy — enough to stumble into Estela during the day. The duo says they wanted to keep things muted while they tweaked the service and got things up to snuff, but now it's official: brunch at Estela, every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. What to expect: fish-sauce-spiked Bloody Marys; a few dinnertime favorites, like lamb ribs with honey or endive-and-walnut salad; and the truly excellent breakfast sandwich you see above, which includes an egg, avocado, pancetta, and a just-sweet-enough Danish pastry. All in all, there are worse ways to start your day. Check out the full menu at Estela's website and take a look a some more of the dishes below.