Eater readers came through huge this week with plywood reports from all over. Our deepest gratitude. Seen some fresh wood in your hood? Tell us about it, won't you? Doublebonuspoints for cameraphone or digicam pictures.
1) Cobble Hill: On Smith Street, next door to new cheese shop Stinky Brooklyn (which opens today, by the by), a special Eater correspondent reports: "Provence en Boite opens June 8. The Bay Ridge resto of the same name was sold a few years ago by chef Jean-Jacques Bernat and wife Leslie Bernat, now they're opening this traditional bistro/patisserie on Smith. Leslie says the Bay Ridge version was dubbed 'Payard-over-the-bridge.' Sharing a block with Smith St. stalwart Patois should prove interesting." [POST-PLYWOOD]
2) Flatiron: A tipster emails, "Saw this on 21st btw Fifth and Sixth. Lonesome Dove Western Bistro." Yee haw—according to Crain's, "By early this fall, [Texas chef Tim] Love plans to open a second location of his popular Fort Worth restaurant, Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, at 29 W. 21st St... The chef signed a 10-year lease for the 2,100-square-foot space that will seat 75 people." [PRE-PLYWOOD/PLYWOOD]
3) Central Village: Another tipster emails, "seems that the ray's pizza on 6th and 11th -- and i don't care what anyone says, THIS IS the original ray's -- is undergoing renovation. kinda sad... since it hasn't changed a bit since i first went there 25 years ago. (holy sh*t — i'm old!)." [RE-PLYWOOD]
4) Lower East Side: "Didn't have my camera with me, but I spotted another soon-to-open Cheesesteak Factory down near Katz's deli this weekend, on Houston near Orchard. I wonder where else they're coming." [POST-PLYWOOD]
5) Soho: Finally, the above is a shot of the unnamed restaurant project rising at the southwest corner of Lafayette and Prince. Writes a reader, "The building they've been working on in soho on the southwest corner of prince and lafayette seems to have been 'unveiled' in that they've taken the scaffolding walls away. If the rumors I've read on eater and curbed are correct and it's going to be a restaurant, it looks like a very cool space. Big windows and plenty of room for outside tables." After the jump, a peek at the (indeed, very cool) interior.
