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— The owners of Flinders Lane in the East Village are planning a new location of their Australian restaurant in the West Broadway space that formerly housed The Butterfly. The owners will pitch their plans for the restaurant in front of the CB1 early next month. Back in July, The Butterfly's operators originally claimed that they were closing for a revamp, but a rental listing for the space went live in October.
— A new bistro called Excuse My French is opening soon at 96 Orchard Street. Alphabet City has a restaurant called Pardon My French, but it looks like there is no relation between the two.
— Chelsea nightclub The Leonora is facing eviction. The club counts celebrities Michael Strahan and Luis Guzman as investors. It opened around this time last year, but apparently the operators are way behind on rent.
— The front window of East Williamsburg restaurant Masha and the Bear features a painting of Santa Claus fighting a rabbi. St. Nick is using a Christmas tree as a weapon, and the rabbi has a flame-shooting menorah.
— For the first time in nearly 60 years, Veselka will be closed on Christmas Day. In the past, the restaurant stayed open partially because much of the staff celebrated Orthodox Christmas during the first week in January. But now, there's a smaller percentage of Ukranian staffers at the restaurant, and owner Tom Birchard got more requests for time off for the holidays, so he made the change. Head over to Bedford + Bowery for a nice, long look at the history of the Veselka building and the restaurant.
— LunchWire: Danny Bowien is now serving a cheesy General Tso's chicken burrito with vegetable fried rice at Mission Cantina:
THE chinese chicken! General TSO's chicken, vegetable fried rice, lots of mozzarella.. Only @cantinanyc !! pic.twitter.com/BP1G6fK0Ln
— james daniel bowien (@dannybowien) December 22, 2015
— More and more restaurants are serving inexpensive types of fish that some diners are unfamiliar with, like porgy, lionfish, and cobia. Vinny Milburn, the owner of Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co., has a good strategy: "If we put it in tacos, people will buy it and they’ll say: ‘That’s a great fish. I’ve never heard of it.’"
— Flipster's on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope is now closed for good. An employee tells DNAinfo that the burger restaurant had "run its course."
— And finally, here's a look at how The Red Hook Lobster Pound's lobster roll is made: