Now that the year-end parties are over, it’s time to start getting excited about all the places you’ll go in the coming months. Read on for a rundown of everything food and restaurant-related — including new projects from Keith McNally and Tom Colicchio, a Lincoln Center restaurant revival, a move by the Health Department to grade restaurants and an invasion by chains like 7-Eleven.
REVAMPED RESTAURANTS
When Fiamma shuttered its doors last January, it was a sign of the impending apocalypse. A year later, its immensely talented chef, the Italian-born Fabio Trabocchi, has settled into his new home at the Four Seasons (99 E. 52nd St.; 212-754-9494), where he’s debuting a trio of tasting menus designed to show off new dishes (and those of new pastry chef Jose Hernandez). The most affordable option is at lunch, when foodies unswayed by the Grill Room’s lunchtime power scene can head to the elegant Pool Room for a $45 threecourse meal featuring items such as parsnip “cappuccino” with Royal Trumpet mushrooms and duck confit ravioli with butternut squash and pinot noir sauce. $75 three-course and $85 fourcourse options are available at dinner.
Those who haven’t visited Café Boulud in recent months will find a spruced-up dining room and a new bar turning out mulled wine with port, vodka and winter spices. (The restaurant’s fabulous lunch deal — currently $35 for three courses with a $28 option for a bottle of wine — is still available.)
And this week it was announced that chef Scott Conant of hot spot Scarpetta will be taking over the Cooper Square Hotel’s short-lived Table 8 space (25 Cooper Square), which will reopen in the coming weeks after a complete redesign.
SMOKING HOT
After boom years saw the rise of rarefied techniques like sous-vide cooking and other feats of molecular gastronomy, today’s kitchens are heating up with the help of a little prehistoric technology: fire. The cooking appliance du jour — the wood-fired oven — is popping up all over town. Brooklyn’s year-old sleeper hit Vinegar Hill House (72 Hudson Ave., between Front and Water streets; 718-522-1018) uses a mix of apple, cherry and maple wood to add depth of flavor and rustic char to dishes like chicken in a cast-iron skillet. Now others are following suit. At Colicchio & Sons, Tom Colicchio’s Old World redo of Craftsteak opening later this month at 85 10th Ave. (reservation line opens Monday; 212-400-6699), chefs will use a woodburning hearth to roast ingredients from local farms. And at Keith McNally’s Pulino’s Bar and Pizzeria, opening this winter at 282 Bowery, chef Nate Appleman will use a wood-fired oven to fire up not only pizzas but the whole beast as part of his nose-totail cooking philosophy.
CHAIN INVASION
The local bodega better watch out. 7-Eleven is bringing Slurpees, Big Gulp sodas and breakfast burritos to a corner near you. With a new outpost at 103 W. 14th St. just opened this week, the convenience store’s aggressive New York expansion is under way. That’s not the only Dallas-based chain with designs on the city: Wingstop, which sells chicken wings in flavors like Cajun and teriyaki, is planning to open its first area branch in Astoria later this spring. And Danny Meyer is rapidly expanding his homegrown Shake Shack burger empire, with new locations planned for the Theater District (southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street) Nolita (47 Prince St.) and the Upper East Side (152-158 E. 86th St.).
MAKING THE GRADE
Diners may have more than a menu — or outdated Zagat review — to judge a restaurant by when they stroll down Restaurant Row this summer. That’s because the Health Department is looking to require restaurants to prominently post a letter grade of A, B or C, depending on their inspection score (anything worse will get them shut down). “This will be a very simple and transparent way for restaurant diners to determine whether they want to eat at a particular restaurant,” says Elliott Marcus, associate commissioner of the Health Department’s bureau of food safety and community sanitation. In the decade since Los Angeles implemented such a system, the percentage of restaurants receiving A’s has skyrocketed. But what if a restaurant is simply having a bad day? “It’s amazing how often we hit on a bad day,” laughs Marcus, adding that restaurants will get a second inspection — as well the opportunity for a hearing — before they must post final grades. The Board of Health is expected to vote on the measure in March.
SPOTLIGHT ON LINCOLN CENTER
The Lincoln Center area continues to be a hot dining destination in 2010. The arts center’s brand-new David Rubenstein Atrium features a branch of ’wichcraft (Broadway between 62nd and 63rd streets; 212-780-0577) with table service, a small-plates dinner menu and a full bar — not to mention free performances every Thursday night and Saturday morning. But the real excitement comes this fall, when Patina Restaurant Group teams up with Per Se chef de cuisine Jonathan Benno to debut what’s sure to be this year’s blockbuster opening, a yet-to-benamed Italian-influenced restaurant in a new glass-enclosed building on the North Plaza. Its roof will feature a sloping grass lawn where visitors can sit and picnic, perhaps snacking on pate “grand-mere” from Daniel Boulud’s wine bar across the street: In the late fall, Bar Boulud (1900 Broadway; 212-595-0303) will expand with additional seating and its delicious pates and charcuterie available for takeout.
NEW EAST SIDE SCENE
Clubby red-sauce Italian Gino (780 Lexington Ave.; 212-758-4466) — famed for its iconic zebra wallpaper and a crowd that’s included everyone from Frank Sinatra to Lindsay Lohan — may close at the end of this month, but well-heeled regulars can find solace at a new-school joint with a penchant for red-checkered tablecloths. On a recent visit to the East Side Social Club (230 E. 51st St.; 212-355-9442), we spied Brooke Shields, Candace Bushnell, Jay McInerney, Shannen Doherty and Four Seasons ringmaster Julian Niccolini in the rollicking dining room. And chef Devon Gilroy is turning out some tasty house-made pasta and a smoky slow- and low-cooked pork chop, to boot.
MARKET ADVANTAGE
Move over, Chelsea Market. The Limelight — that symbol of 20th-century debauchery — is reopening March 1 as the Limelight Marketplace (47 W. 20th St.), a one-stop shop for noshing. In addition to two restaurant spaces and a branch of East 50th Street’s Sofia Wine Bar, the churchturned-nightclub-turned-mall will house a kaleidoscopic array of cupcakes from Cupcake Stop, one-bite brownies from Mari’s New York, a cocoa bar and cafe from SoHo’s Mariebelle and fro-yo from Jala. Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget a pair of sweet spots called Little Candy Cakes and It’s Sugar (from a co-founder of Dylan’s Candy Bar). Those who don’t share the culinary cravings of an eighth-grade girl can look forward to Eataly — the 42,500-square-foot Italian emporium from Joseph and Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali opening this summer at 200 Fifth Ave. Each retail section will feature its own dedicated eatery, including a pizza and pasta bar (with a wood-fired oven, of course), a cheese and salami counter, a beef restaurant, a vegetable restaurant, a crudo and seafood bar and an additional bar serving gelato, espresso and wine. There will also be a separate wine shop, bakery and patisserie.
carla.spartos@nypost.com