Dovetail Closes for a Top to Bottom Revamp June 22; The Elm's Replacement Now Dubbed Oleanders

Dovetail, chef John Fraser's Upper West Side fine dining restaurant, is closing for renovations in about a month. Between June 22 and July 7, Fraser tells the Times, the restaurant will undergo a complete revamp in both kitchen and dining room. When it reopens, it will no longer serve an a la carte menu or a chef's tasting menu, but instead offer just prix fixe options. Where before Fraser served a four-course prix fixe option for $88, now he'll serve three courses for $82 or four for $95. He'll also continue to serve a $58 three-course Sunday supper.

Flo Fab also reports that the replacement for the Elm at the McCarren Hotel now has a name: Oleanders. It is, as we already knew, being helmed by two Williamsburg restaurant pros, Joe Carroll (St. Anselm, Fette Sau, and others) and Francesco Panella (Antica Pesa), who have decided to model it after the fern bars popular among preppy singles of the 70s and 80s. Chef Kevin Chojnowski, an alum of Willow Road and Public, is in charge of the kitchen, serving a menu of retro dishes like beef wellington and pasta primavera. Retro cocktails to go with that, meanwhile, are being developed by mixology pro Dale DeGroff. The whole space will be decorated in faux Tiffany lamps and bentwood chairs, a far cry from what it looked like under Paul Liebrandt. According to a representative, Oleanders should open June 10.

In other hotel restaurant news, Sessanta, John McDonald's Sicilian restaurant in the Sixty Soho, supposedly opens Thursday.

On top of all that, generally adored Israeli import Breads Bakery opens its kiosk in Bryant Park tomorrow, joining Le Pain Quotidien and Wafels & Dinges to fill the food shacks left empty when 'wichcraft made its exit earlier this year. Although there is no shortage of bakeries – even good bakeries – in the area, this is still big news for the denizens and office workers of Midtown, since it means they'll be able to get their hands on the bakery's venerated babka (and other pastries) on their lunch break. Plus, like the original Union Square outpost, this Breads will also serve sandwiches and salads. It will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

There's also good news for those too far north in Midtown to take regular advantage of the kiosks in the park. Flo Fab reports that owners Uri Scheft and Gadi Peleg are opening another Breads outpost at 1890 Broadway, near 62nd Street (it's right across from Lincoln Center). That one, which is a full-size outpost, will open in the fall.