Savta
The storefront that for decades housed the Zito & Sons bakery in the West Village until it closed in 2004, has been home to several restaurants since. The latest occupant is one where an important component of the menu is baked goods. Milk bread, multigrain loaves and croissants at the table and available for retail sales on weekends, are the work of Vincent Benoliel, an owner of Pasta Corner in Midtown, and the owner of Michelina, a Los Angeles bakery. The name, which means grandmother in Hebrew, refers to his own grandmother, a French restaurateur. Pizzas, Japanese eggplant, and cioppino are some of the dishes to be served in the rustic setting with a back patio. (Wednesday)
259 Bleecker Street (Cornelia Street), 212-255-1234, savtanyc.com.
The Alderman
Restaurants in hotels are the specialty of Renwick Hospitality. This one is inside the Motto, a Hilton property near Times Square. As with the others, the corporate chef and a partner, Carsten Johanssen, is working with founding partner Gary Wallach. Here, the executive chef Steven Hubbell has rethought some classics for dishes like black pepper-fried catfish, grilled sunchokes with onion purée, a smash burger, pan-roasted steelhead, and roast duck with juniper glaze and parsnip gratin. The hotel’s website suggests that the place evokes the Gilded Age but odds are that in those days bread and butter would not have set you back $14 (the butter is cultured after all) nor would a pickle plate command $16, gilding indeed. (Thursday)
Motto by Hilton New York City Times Square, 150A West 48th Street, 212-668-8648, aldermannyc.com.
Branches
Simò Pizza
With restaurants established first in the meatpacking district, where he famously shaved white truffles over some pizzas around holiday time, then in Greenwich Village, Simone Falco is opening another edition in Midtown. Like the others, the Neapolitan style pies take 90 seconds to bake.
1290 Avenue of the Americas (52nd Street), simopizza.com.
Raising Cane’s
The first Harlem outlet for this 750-plus global chain for chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries and Texas toast opens with considerable neighborhood fanfare. It’s the third in Manhattan.
124 West 125th Street, raisingcanes.com.
Looking Ahead
Charlie Palmer Steak IV
The chef and restaurateur Charlie Palmer is planning to open the next generation model for his group of steakhouses, Charlie Palmer Steak in about a month. The location at 135 West 42nd Street, which replaced Aureole, will close on Thursday and the new version will open on the fourth floor of the Knickerbocker Hotel diagonally across 42nd Street, which was formerly Mr. Palmer’s all-day cafe at the Knick. The new installation seeks to break the traditional mold for the steakhouse genre with menus that emphasize seafood and pasta along with slabs of meat, and takes an approach that is more about fine dining, with table-side preparations. Adam Raksin will be the executive chef. Several meanings for the “IV” in the name include the fourth floor and that it’s the fourth of the steakhouses under the Charlie Palmer Collective umbrella. Others, which are more classic steakhouses, are in Washington, D.C., Reno, Nev., and Napa, Calif. Mr. Palmer is giving up the space at 135 West 42nd Street.
Knickerbocker Hotel, 6 Times Square.
