A Running List of New Restaurants That Opened in New York City, April 2021
A Korean-Cajun delivery restaurant, a source for Oaxacan moles in Astoria, and more openings this month
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Clay Williams/Eater
More than one year into the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants across the city continue to move forward with openings, sometimes because their concepts could be adapted for takeout and delivery, but more often because their owners saw no other choice but to forge ahead. Since March 16, 2020, when the state first temporarily closed indoor dining, hundreds of new restaurants have opened their doors. This list of pandemic-born businesses includes restaurants serving Korean-Cajun gumbo, vegan soul food, late-night bites, and bowls of Taiwanese noodle soup.
Dan Ahn/KJUN [Official]
Dan Ahn/KJUN [Official]
Then there’s the gumbo, which Jung says is one of her favorite items on the menu. “I tried a lot of gumbo in NYC, and I just didn’t like it,” says Jung. “It just wasn’t the right consistency.” Jung developed her recipe based on observing Chase make it at her legendary New Orleans restaurant Dooky Chase, where she worked as a chef’s assistant for six months in 2010. “I called her my Creole grandmother,” says Jung on working with Chase. Instead of a traditional hot sauce that is served on the side with Creole gumbo, Jung serves her version which features chicken and andouille sausage or seafood with a side of okra kimchi.
Ori Harpaz
Someone orders the Cajun chicken, owner Philippe Delgrange greets a patron warmly, a table debates animatedly when the Lincoln Center might reopen. The sounds and smells are pure Madison Avenue, but this is Palm Beach, where Upper East Side French bistro Le Bilboquet has opened its new outpost down the street from La Goulue Sant Ambroeus is a short drive away. Just as the pandemic has sent a flock of New Yorkers down south, restaurants have followed suit.
The Art Deco-inspired interior of Le Bilboquet in Palm Beach. Ori Harpaz
The new Le Bilboquet in Palm Beach is situated in a spot off Worth Avenue, owned by Jane Holzer. Holzer was one of Andy Warhol s muses and a fixture in the New York scene in the 1960s, but now she is staunchly Floridian. A native of Palm Beach, she moved back to her hometown years ago, investing in its cultural and arts scene. It seems as though she is close to a big payoff with this latest flurry of openings.