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[title]BTH At this waterfront jazz club “by the Hudson,” seafood is king, dominating the menu in the form of sweet chili calamari, whole lobsters and oysters on the half shell. 712 W 125th St at the West Side Highway (212-222-2841, bythehudson.com)
GG's First pastries at the General Greene, then ice cream at Morgenstern's Finest—now Nicholas Morgenstern takes a stab at pizza at his Goat Town revamp. After closing the three-year-old restaurant at the beginning of July 2014, Morgenstern hit the drawing board with Resto vet Bobby Hellen to rethink the locavore approach. “It was due time for a change,” Morgenstern says. “We wanted a neighborhood vibe and a broader menu—to be the place East Villagers go to on a random Tuesday.” The farm-to-table eatery now slings Hellen’s rounds topped with house-made sausages, cured meats and vegetables shuttled from the backyard garden: His signature 1986 pizza, an ode to his beloved Mets, comes heaped in sopressata, fennel sweet-and-sour agrodolce and pickled peppers. But pies aren’t alone in the double-decker oven. More than three quarters of the New American menu will be baked, including roasted branzino with pistachio pesto, lobster in mizuna-and-tarragon butter and crispy lamp atop pea-stuffed agnolotti. Morgenstern also streamlined the white-walled space, sacking the tiled benches in favor of plush, hunter-green horseshoe banquettes. At the marble bar, Goat Town barman Gabe Richter remains to shake up session cocktails like the Quiet American (Campari, soda, beet vermouth) and Grey Gardens (lager, lemon and Earl Grey syrup). 511 E 5th St between Aves A and B (212-687-3641)
Lincoln Center Kitchen Ed Brown (Eighty One, The Sea Grill) returns to the kitchen at Avery Fisher Hall with a New American menu including wild-mushroom popovers, chicken potpie and Berkshire pork chops. 10 Lincoln Center Plaza at 63rd St and Broadway (212-874-7000, lincolncenterkitchen.com)
Mulino a Vino Wine takes precedence in this subterranean lounge, where waiter-sommeliers pair vino (cannonau, sweet rosé) with dishes like roasted-chicken ravioli and shrimp risotto. 337 W 14th St between Eighth and Ninth Aves (212-433-0818, mulinoavino.com)
Park Avenue Autumn For the fall incarnation of the seasonally changing restaurant, Benkei O’Sullivan (ABC Kitchen) and Zene Flinn (Nougatine at Jean-Georges) turn out a hearty menu of dried-cherry-and-coffee venison tartare and fig carpaccio. 360 Park Ave South at 26th St (212-951-7111, parkavenyc.com)
Sachi Asian Bistro Andy Yang (Rhong-Tiam) and Jean Georges protégé Pichet Ong re-create Southeast Asian dishes from their travels, including shrimp toast, char siu duck buns and orange-lime-teriyaki octopus. 713 Second Ave between 38th and 39th Sts (212-297-1883, sachinyc.com)
Tacuba Astoria gets a South of the Border sampling at this taqueria slinging mezcal-sloshed pineapples alongside Latin staples like chicken tinga and shrimp empanadas. 35-01 36th St between 35th and 36th Aves, Astoria, Queens (718-486-2727, tacubanyc.com)
White Street Floyd Cardoz puts dishes together like a puzzle, piecing Mexican with Japanese and Thai with Italian. At his buttoned-up dining room in a former 19th-century armory, the Top Chef master veers away from his past in the charcoal pit at North End Grill and the Indian spice of Tabla, instead injecting bold global accents into an American menu. “I was limited before,” he says. “But now I can cook through a different lens and put my passion for flavors from every country into action.” Dishes range from lobster pasta drenched in coconut milk and tamarind to raw hamachi prepared à la ceviche in a lime-juice broth to short ribs crowned with pickled onions atop a bed of mustard-and-horseradish grits. Though the ornate chandeliers hanging from the cathedral ceilings—matched with white-clothed tables, leather club chairs and intricate mosaic floors—suggest formal dining, Cardoz insists on approachability: “Nothing is over-the-top,” he says. “We’re just celebrating the diverse cultures of the United States.” 221 West Broadway at White St (212-944-8378, whitestreetnyc.com)