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Fall Flavor: 41 Things We’re Psyched to Eat (and Drink) This Season

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Roast chicken from Saxon & Parole. Photo: Melissa Hom

Like it or not, all signs of summer are fast disappearing. But good-bye to sun and warmth also means hello to all the amazing food that fall brings with it: brothy stews; sweet, earthy root vegetables; tender roasted meats; and of course lots of warming whiskey drinks. (Bloggers have to fortify, after all.) To help everyone prepare for the sweater-weather months ahead, Grub Street has rounded up the 41 new things we’re most looking forward to trying this fall. The list is a mix of upcoming dishes from new restaurants, new dishes from old restaurants, and a few season-appropriate favorites we’ve been missing all summer. So check out the list, then take to the comments and let us know what it is you can’t wait to get your hands on.

And when you’re done checking out our picks, make sure you head over to our other Grub Street editions — Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco — to see what they’re looking forward to this fall.

Aamanns13 Laight St., nr. Varick St.; opening October 24Plenty of people are willing to trek to Copenhagen to eat somewhere like Noma. But who’s going to fly there for open-faced sandwiches, even ones as amazing-sounding as the versions served at Adam Aamann’s Danish restaurant? Lucky for us, Aamann — armed with sandwiches like the beef tartare with fresh-fried potatoes, herb emulsion, and pickles atop sourdough bread — is heading to New York. Will this be Scandinavia’s answer to ‘wichcraft? We can’t wait to find out.
B&B25 W. Houston St., nr. Mercer St.; 212-334-7320B&B owner John McDonald first alluded to this forthcoming large-format feast in his New York Diet, and we’ve been anticipating it ever since. Why? While large-format feasts are nothing new, we can think of few chefs who would be better suited to serve a glorious hunk of perfectly rare, fat-encircled beef than Josh Capon — after all, Capon is the meat master who made burgers the signature order at the otherwise seafood-centric Lure.
Beer Table PantryGrand Central Terminal, entrance on Lexington Ave., nr. 43rd St.; 212-922-0008Justin Philips’s Park Slope beer spot — more tasting room than bar — is a must-visit spot for beer lovers, though it’s a tad out of the way if you’re not making a special trip. But the idea of getting a similar, albeit truncated, experience in midtown, thanks to Philips’s new Grand Central counter, is totally for us. All the better if we can grab a growler to go for a train ride up to New England this fall.
Big Gay Ice Cream Shop125 E. 7th St., nr. Ave. A; 212-533-9333 The brick-and-mortar outpost of the unfathomably popular Big Gay Ice Cream Truck opened pretty late in summer — Labor Day weekend, in fact. So it’s a good thing they’re planning warm options, like this hilariously named mixture of hot chocolate, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate, and chiles.  
Bourgeois Pig387 Court St., nr. First Pl., Carroll Gardens When the Brooklyn outpost of the East Village wine-and-fondue spot finally opens this fall, we’re guessing it’s going to be as mobbed as the original. We’re partial to the rarebit fondue, but we’re also guessing we’ll have to at least try the bacon fondue that we hear is in the works.
Bowery Diner241 Bowery, nr. Stanton; opening October If Belgian chef Mathieu Palombino’s way with pizza (on display nightly at Motorino) is any indication of his ability to rework American favorites, his new diner concept should basically blow every other restaurant away. Already giving us hope is his take on the reuben (the meat takes a week to cure). For the first time in maybe forever, Katz’s LES corned beef supremacy might be in jeopardy.     Photo: Elliot Black
Buvette42 Grove St., nr. Bleecker St.; 212-255-3590 Look, heirloom tomatoes and fresh corn on the cob are all well and good, but it’s hard to get too broken up about saying good-bye to them when you have something as wonderful as cassoulet to look forward to in the fall and winter. And the miniature version that Jody Williams serves at Buvette is perfect in two ways: It’s as satisfying as any traditional version of the dish, and it isn’t so huge that it makes you feel like you’ll go into cardiac arrest if you finish it.  
The Cannibal113 E. 29th St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-686-5480 Why would you order anything other than raw beef at a restaurant named the Cannibal? Heck, owner Christian Pappanicholas, who also owns Resto next door, has devoted an entire section of his menu to the classic preparation. Our plan is to start with the classic beef preparation (pictured; served with chopsticks) and move our way into the veal and lamb versions.    
Center Bar10 Columbus Cir., at 60th St., fourth fl.; no phone yet; opening late fallIs New York ready to re-embrace a dish as tony as caviar and blini? It doesn’t exactly jibe with today’s cocktail- and pork-heavy mind-set, but no matter. Center Bar is the work of Michael Lomonaco, whose Porter House is traditional down to the beefsteak tomato-and-Bermuda-onion salad. If anyone’s going to remind Manhattan what’s been lost in the casualization of the city’s restaurants, it will be him.  
Chuko552 Vanderbilt Ave., at Dean St., Prospect Heights; 718-576-6701 The crowds have already found this new Prospect Heights noodle shop, but the limited menu and lack of liquor license mean you won’t have to wait two hours for some noodles, as you might at Manhattan’s most popular ramen spots. That the broth is as fatty and deep as it is at those other spots, with bouncy noodles and perfectly soft poached eggs, almost feels like a bonus. Now, if only we could get a Kirin to go with them …     
Ciano45 E. 22nd St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-982-8422 We’ve always found all-pasta tasting menus to be overly aggressive, but this dish is almost the definition of a light touch — good thing, since it leads the way on the $79 pasta-tasting menu, which also includes lobster ravioli and smoked-lamb tortellini.
Crown24 E. 81st St., nr. Madison Ave.; 646-559-4880 John DeLucie already proved at Waverly Inn that you can serve stuff like truffled macaroni and cheese and pack the house, so we’re excited to see that his move uptown means he’s also upgraded his sceney starch offering to this very grown-up, astoundingly delicious-sounding, dish.  
Del Frisco’s Grille51st St., nr. Rockefeller Center Plz.; 212-267-0371 Yes, Pimento Cheese Fritters sound like some gonzo chain-restaurant offering. In fact, they’re served at a Del Frisco’s location in tourist-friendly Rockefeller Center, so that’s sort of what they are. But so what? They’re pimento cheese fritters! If some tiny, Southern-leaning spot in Brooklyn put these on the menu, New York’s food scenesters would be falling over themselves to try them, so we’re hardly going to avoid them just because of the admittedly suspect environment in which they’re served.  
Demi Monde90 Broad St., nr. Stone St; opening November The last thing New York really needs is another high-end cocktail joint, which is why it’s strange there’s such a drought of good drinks in lower Manhattan. Silver Lining did its part to help alleviate the issue, and this new spot from the team behind Death & Co. promises to help even more. And with Demi Monde promising to serve drinks like the Field Marshall (pictured) — a combination of Armagnac, Combier, bitters, and champagne — we’re happy to make room for one more spot.   
Eleven Madison Park11 Madison Ave., nr. 24th St.; 212-889-0905 If we’re dropping between $100 and $150 to have white truffles shaved over something, that something had better be more interesting than plain pasta or risotto. That’s why we save our splurging dollars for Eleven Madison Park, where Daniel Humm and his team turn out truffle-friendly plates that actually have some personality, like the truffle tortellini with Fontina and chestnuts they served last fall. Whatever they put together this year, we know it will be equally impressive — and expensive.   Photo: Francesco Tonelli/? 2010 Francesco Tonelli - All Rights Reserved
Empelllón Cocina105 First Ave., nr. 7th St. With Empellón, Alex Stupak proved he could do casual, Mexican-inspired fare to considerable acclaim. And when he opens a new version in the East Village, he’ll return, in a way, to the high-end presentation he left behind when he departed wd~50’s pastry kitchen. This dish — a spiced-hamachi-stuffed poblano chile with parsley, walnut, and pomegranate-infused Gala apple that Stupak says was inspired by the classic chiles en nogada — is just one example of what to expect on the tasting menu at his soon-to-open Cocina.  
Fatty ‘Cue50 Carmine St., nr. Bedford St.; 212-929-5050 Do we really need to say anything about this? It’s a half-pound of deep-fried bacon, from Zak Pelaccio, the same dude who serves a bowl of warm “master fat” at the Brooklyn location of Fatty ‘Cue. If you can’t get onboard with deep-fried bacon, you’re reading the wrong blog.  
Frankie’s 570570 Hudson St., nr. W. 11th St.; 212-924-0818 If we had things our way, there’d be a Frankie’s location on every block in the city, serving their rightfully famous meatballs to all comers. That the fall brings a new location in the West Village means we’re at least one block closer to realizing our dream.  
Hillside70 Hudson Ave., nr. Water St.; opening late October.We love — love — Vinegar Hill House. The problem is its location: If you show up and there’s a two-hour wait, there aren’t a lot of other options in a neighborhood that might affectionately be called the armpit of Brooklyn. Which is why we cannot wait for Jean Adamson and Sam Buffa to open their casual spot next door that will hopefully alleviate much of the pain associated with waiting for a table at VHH. In fact, if the place is as good as it sounds, it might even turn into our preferred Dumbo-adjacent dining option.  
Isa348 Wythe Ave., nr. S. 2nd St., Williamsburg; 347-689-3594 Much has been said about Taavo Somer’s contribution to the aesthetic of New York dining. (How many times has a new restaurant been compared to Freemans?) What typically isn’t mentioned is the food at his places. But that’s bound to change now that Isa is up and running in Williamsburg. Chef Ignacio Mattos is turning out Mediterranean-ish food that has been drawing early raves. Then again, that aesthetic sensibility hasn’t been lost at Isa, perhaps just shifted in its focus from dining room to dish. After all, just look at the pictured plate: Have sardines ever looked prettier?  
Jean Georges1 Central Park West, nr. 60th St.; 212-299-3900 Fall dessert menus mean Concord grapes, and we’d venture that no pastry chef in the city does more with them than admitted lover of Concords Johnny Iuzzini. And Iuzzini ends his Late-Harvest dessert tasting — which also includes honey-roasted tomatoes, corn panna cotta with a caramelized madeleine “sponge,” and fig carpaccio — with a spritzer of clarified, carbonated Concord juice finished with diced melon and a few drops of lemon-balm oil.
Jung Sik2 Harrison St., nr. Hudson St.; 212-219-0900 We’ll give this to the team behind the new Jung Sik (named after chef Jung Sik Yim): It takes nerve to open a high-end, modern Korean restaurant in Tribeca. Not because it sounds bad, but because it’s hard to gauge, exactly, how New Yorkers will react to it. But serving a slab of sous-vide pork belly that is, as the Times describes it, “tweaked to hit five taste elements: spicy, crispy, sour, sweet, and soft” is going to be a great way to warm up the locals.  
La Promenade des Anglais461 W. 23rd St., nr. Tenth Ave.; 212-255-7400  Alain Allegretti’s new Chelsea restaurant is already up and running, and the early word on his Southern France–inspired menu is that it’s a winner (the space certainly looks nice). The one we’re most looking forward to is the vitello tomato, which eschews the traditional cold veal and tuna sauce for fried sweetbreads and thin-sliced raw tuna.   
Landbrot137 Seventh Ave. S.; 185 Orchard St.; opening early November This German bakery brand is opening two locations simultaneously, and all signs point to a potential chain. Their offerings — including Flammkuchen (pictured), which is German for “Flame bread,” as well as the bakery’s namesake country loaf — certainly sound like they have real potential, so the bread might be good enough to warrant that. 
Le Bernardin155 W. 51st St., nr. Seventh Ave; 212-554-1515 Everyone owes it to themselves to do at least one big blowout meal at Eric Ripert’s four-star seafood icon. But, thanks to their recent renovation, you can now also just stroll into the brand-new salon area and get dishes like gin-cured gravlax (pictured) in an ever-so-slightly less formal — and far less expensive — setting. To that, we say, Oui, chef.   
Mile End, Mile End SandwichMultiple locations; 718-852-7510 Boerum Hill’s Mile End deli has been mobbed since about five minutes after husband-and-wife team Noah Bernamoff and Rae Cohen opened it. And we’ve always been right there in the middle of that mob. That’s why it pleases us to no end to know that the couple will expand to both Red Hook, in the form of a larger production facility and a small retail space, and Manhattan, where their Mile End Sandwich shop will capitalize on the success of their smoked-meat sandwich by offering new concoctions like this pickled-tongue sandwich with onion-raisin marmalade. 
Nitehawk Cinema136 Metropolitan Ave.; 718-384-3980 Nitehawk’s promise of drinking while you watch movies was all well and good, until everyone realized you couldn’t actually drink while you watched the movie. But a change to New York’s liquor laws means the dream can finally, finally become a reality in the next few weeks. We just hope Drive is still playing when it does.  
Pane Panelle at Stuzzicheria305½ Church St., nr. Walker St.; 212-219-2357 In case you couldn’t tell, everyone here at Grub Street HQ is a big fan of this traditional Italian sandwich, which stuffs crispy chickpea fritters, fresh ricotta, and caciocavallo cheese into an eggy bun. It gives us hope that maybe the rest of the city might catch on, now that Stuzzicheria in Tribeca has a tiny kiosk devoted to these sandwiches (not to mention muffalettas and a Sicilian tongue sandwich). 
Parm48 Mulberry St., nr. Prince St.; opening October  The Torrisi guys tell us they’re putting the finishing touches on their second spot, the more-casual Parm. Everyone knows they basically made all of New York City reconsider what mozzarella could be with the pillow-soft, warm version served at Torrisi Italian Specialties, so we can hardly wait to try their takes on bar staples like mozzarella sticks and pizza knots (pictured, alongside raw littlenecks).  Just open already, guys!  
Peels325 Bowery, at E. 2nd St.; 646-602-7015There’s little doubt that duck has become the city’s dish-of-the-moment (some might even say it’s the new pork). And the latest place to throw duck on its, ahem, bill of fare is Peels, which roasts the breast and serves it atop celery roote puree (the whole thing is finished with cherry sauce). It’s a classic, zero-pretense preparation — one that’s right at home at Taavo Somer and Will Tigrett’s casual East Village spot.
Pillar & PloughHotel Williamsburg, 160 N. 12th St., nr. Berry St.; 718-218-7500; opening October “Hotel food” is a phrase that has, thankfully, lost much of its stigma over the last few years. We’re guessing it’ll move another notch up when L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon vet Andrés Grundy unveils his full menu. Especially if the rest of it lives up to the promise of this outstanding-sounding beef dish.   
Red Gravy151 Atlantic Ave., nr. Clinton St., Brooklyn Heights; opening November Saul Bolton spent over a decade as the owner of one place, the appropriately named Saul on Smith Street. Now, suddenly, he’s everywhere: His pub-inspired Vanderbilt is an unmitigated success, he’s doing the food that pairs with cocktails at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, and now he’s breaking out his best Italian-American food at the soon-to-open Red Gravy. Lest you think his expansion-minded mind-set means he isn’t taking time to dwell on the details, know this: Bolton’s recipe for Red Gravy’s signature sauce takes three days to make.   
Romera355 W. 16th St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-929-5800 Spanish chef Miguel Sanchez Romera’s brand-new high-end restaurant in the Dream hotel hasn’t exactly drawn raves in the early going — “there was more than one dish that tasted like marshmallows,” said one commenter — but the food just looks and sounds so insanely bonkers (the dish pictured is kind of a salad thing, we think?) that we’d be lying if we said we weren’t dying to try it. After all, great art is always misunderstood at first, right? Right?  
Sausage Boss Madison Square Garden, 4 Penn Plz., nr. 31st St.; opening October Even if the Knicks don’t play a single game this season (which is looking more and more likely), we’re still planning on hitting Madison Square Garden for more than just Rangers games and the odd concert. That’s because Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s version of a McChicken sandwich, Hill Country’s barbecue, and burgers from Drew Nieporent are all among the venue’s new concessions. But we’re still most excited about Andrew Carmellini’s sausage stand, and not just because we can’t believe MSG brass actually let him call it Sausage Boss.  
Saxon & Parole316 Bowery, nr. Bleecker; 212-254-0350 We were shocked when we first heard that Brad Farmerie and the AvroKO team would be turning their sorta-Asian Double Crown into a restaurant that would focus on “the domestic meats [Farmerie loves] to cook.” But in a way it makes sense that the Pittsburgh native wants to get back to his meat-and-potatoes past. And after seeing dishes like this roasted chicken with orange segments and charred fennel, it makes even more sense.  
Taka Taka330 West Broadway at Grand St.; 212-966-8252Look, we have no idea whether Taka Taka — which combines conveyor-belt sushi with Mexican flavors in dishes like tempura shrimp with jalapeño, Manchego cheese, and chipotle sauce — is really going to be any good. But at least it’s something different. And in a city that’s been saturated with pasta and burger shacks over the last few years, there’s something to be said for that. Besides, you can always wash down the crazy-sounding food with tequila, and that’s never a bad thing.  ​
Talde367 Seventh Ave., at 11th St., Park Slope; opening late October Many former Top Chef contestants might be tempted to open big-box restaurants in super-sceney locations (like, say, the Mondrian Soho). So we give Dale Talde a lot of credit for going to Park Slope, where his food stands a chance of outshining his star and the clientele’s clothes. And this Southern-Thai-American mash-up sounds like it has the potential to do exactly that.
Terroir Murray Hill439 Third Ave., nr. 31st St. At this point, Marco Canora and Paul Greico’s Terroir wine bars have become city staples. In fact, they’d be boring if they weren’t so downright great. So when news broke of a third location headed to Murray Hill, people were understandably excited. We were excited when we saw they’d be bringing a French dip — a sandwich that for some reason is much-loved in L.A., and often terrible in NYC — to the new spot. If anyone can do the sandwich au jus justice, it’s Canora. (Oh, and we think they have wine at the new spot, too?)  
Tertulia359 Sixth Ave., nr. Washington Pl.; 646-559-9909 Seamus Mullen’s return to cooking Spanish food in New York has been nothing less than a sensation since Tertulia opened last month. The outstanding food — including his excellent large-format paella with a deeply flavored fire-roasted socarrat, fresh seafood, and coveted Bomba rice — serves as the perfect reminder of exactly what the city had been missing during Mullen’s hiatus.  
Vinegar Hill House72 Hudson Ave., nr. Water St.; 718-522-1018 The pork chop gets all the love at this well-established Brooklyn hot spot, but when the weather turns cold, our focus turns to executive chef Brian Leth’s superlative take on the classic French warmer. And the succulent braised short rib and always-perfect bone marrow are made even better when you eat them in the restaurant’s ultracozy basement dining room.  
Xocolatti172 Prince St., nr. Thompson St.; 212-256-0332We’re not huge chocoholics, but even we can’t resist ending this list with something sweet, especially when it’s the fashion-forward flavors that Shaineal Shah has started selling at his just-opened Soho shop. We’re looking forward to having things like mango-paprika slates and sake truffles make believers out of us.
Fall Flavor: 41 Things We’re Psyched to Eat (and Drink) This Season