Wednesday, November 17, 2010

East Village eatery etc.: Mosaic Cafe opens; nutcrackers arrive

A reader sent along this photo noting that Mosaic Cafe recently opened here on Avenue C near 10th Street at the former Rico space...



As Eater reported yesterday, wd~50 pastry chef Alex Stupak received the OK from the CB3/SLA for Empellon, "a fine-dining Mexican restaurant," at 105 First Ave. ... Which must mean current 105 First Ave. tenant, the vegan eatery Counter, will be calling it a day soon....



Mary Ann's has quietly reopened on Second Avenue at Fifth Street...



A reader brings word that Wasan, a seasonal Japanese restaurant, has just opened at the former Knife + Fork space on Fourth Street.



...and the Nutcrackers are out in Little Italy...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The owner of Counter, Deborah Gavito could have helped the neighborhood by transferring her liquor license to another vegetarian restaurant. This is despicable! The whole basis for the vegetarian not vegan restaurant was to support local farming, which they did, as well as to support animal rights. The bar became famous for their organic martinis and wine.


Here are some links from the Counter website.

VEGETARIAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

vegnews.com
vegsource.com
farmsanctuary.org
goveg.com/order.asap
peta.org
satyamag.com
humanenyc.org


I thought that the restaurant was progressive and dead set on changing the world. How could they transfer to a non vegetarian restaurant!

Thanks alot Deborah!

nygrump said...

Hey, it's just a business, after you pay your bill, they owe you nothing. What I want to know is, what is "a seasonal" Japanese restaurant - re they only open a few months of the year?

Anonymous said...

Bummed about Counter. I dug their organic wines and friendly bar staff.

Anonymous said...

I heard that Ms. Gavito wants to eventually open an organic bar. I hope that she will not open in the East Village because we already have way too many bars, even if this one will be organic.

The Lower East Side was annihilated and public officials and residents allowed this to happen. Please please take your bar to the West Side or at least to the other side of Houston or more towards 4th Avenue.

The East Village is under siege. They are heading our way. We need to do everything we can to keep the pukes and celebrities on the other side of Houston and to try and deter them from taking over Alphabet. Business people are salivating over us and our land 24 hours a day! Its good to be desired.



Rosario Dawson is one of us! Chloe Sevigny is not!

Red said...

Well, Japanese cuisine, back in Japan at least, is quite seasonal.

I feel like everyday Americans "get caught up in" seasonal food pretty strongly in fall and summer; in Japan just imagine that every time of year has its own very identifiable foods (different.

So that might be what this restaurant is trying to do?

Anyway, I don't want to suggest that seasonality is some kind of amazing cultural trait that only the Japanese do, but it has a long history. Haiku, for example, must traditionally include a word which signifies the season.