Grub Street

Five established chefs take center stage in this week’s issue – or six, if you count Kurt Gutenbrunner, who, per In Season, has a way with white asparagus. The others? Michael Anthony, the Blue Hill Haute Barnyard prodigy who stepped into Tom Colicchio’s shoes at Gramercy Tavern; Christopher Lee, a major rising talent who filled big shoes at Gilt; Kerry Simon, a Las Vegas–based Vongerichten lieutenant who is now doing the food for a giant karaoke bar; and finally Marco Canora and Asian dessert master Pichet Ong, whose long-awaited debuts, Insieme and P*Ong, respectively, open this week. All this star power, along with two short lists that couldn’t be more different, awaits in this week’s magazine.

• Gramercy Tavern, under the stewardship of the vegetable-friendly Michael Anthony, still manages to elicit praise from meat lover Adam Platt, as does Christopher Lee's Gilt, hidden away in the Palace Hotel.

• Gael Greene stops in to check out Spotlight Live, a magnificently vulgar new attraction where one of the country's top chefs spins out pepperoni pizza and macaroni and cheese.

• Rob and Robin, in Openings, describe in appetizing detail Insieme, Marco Canora's first restaurant since creating Hearth, and P*Ong, an all-dessert lounge meant to compete with Room 4 Dessert and Sam Mason's forthcoming Tailor.

• Rare white asparagus gets its due treatment from the hands of Kurt Gutenbrunner, who boils them up with a minimum of artifice.

• And in our two short lists, Rob and Robin supply, on the one hand, a guide to eating around the Port Authority and, on the other, a list of nature-friendly restaurants in which to commemorate Earth Day.

Gramercy Rehab
Spotlight Live
Openings: Insieme, Tiffin Wallah, P*Ong
In Season: White Asparagus
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Road Food [NYM]