Best new neighborhood joint: Red Rooster Harlem

OTHER NOMINEES: Earl’s Beer and Cheese, Porsena

Every night’s a house party at Marcus Samuelsson’s uptown sensation—with a live-music jam session up front by the bar, huge portions of rib-sticking food in the hopping dining room and the chef among his guests playing host. It’s not a shocker, then, that the biggest thing to happen to the Harlem food scene since Sylvia’s opened in 1962 earned your votes over cozy spots across town (Earl’s Beer and Cheese) and downtown (Porsena). This is the platonic ideal of a neighborhood restaurant, jammed with an affable mix of first-timers and regulars, VIPs and working folk. On a recent Monday, the Rakiem Walker Project—a musical ensemble featuring Red Rooster waiters—had the whole joint jumping. The food on the tables was just as incendiary, a melting pot of potent flavors reflecting the neighborhood and the chef’s polyglot Swedish-Ethiopian roots: crispy fried chicken, fiery jerk bacon with a runny egg, Swedish meatballs and African-style piquant peanut soup. This must be what home tastes like when you’re from so many different places. Red Rooster Harlem, 310 Malcolm X Blvd (Lenox Ave) between 125th and 126th Sts (212-792-9001, redroosterharlem.com)

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