Dufresne & Ansel Team Up for Breakfast, Chelsea Market Fish Tacos, and More Intel

—Jehangir Mehta's six-year-old restaurant inside the Duane Street Hotel, Mehtaphor, is currently under construction. A hotel employee tells Tribeca Citizen that it's going to reopen soon as Graffiti at the Duane Street Hotel. Presumably, this means the food will be similar to what's offered at Mehta's other restaurant, Graffiti, in the East Village.

— Dominique Ansel and Wylie Dufresne are collaborating on a breakfast sandwich that will be served at Dominique Ansel Kitchen this weekend. The "wd~Ansel Egg Melt" is made with soft scrambled eggs, confit egg yolk, black truffles, bacon, maple flakes, and "homemade cheese à la Wylie." That dog pile of ingredients is served on a smoked English muffin with a crispy truffled hash brown on the side for $20. It's available this Saturday, January 16, through Monday, January 18. Take a look at the beast here.

— The St. Marks Place brownstone that houses the Grassroots Tavern was just sold to Klosed Properties, the same real estate company that owns the building that housed the original Palm steakhouse until last year. Grassroots still has five years left on its lease, and a source familiar with the deal tells EV Grieve that the owner has an option to renew after that.

— A new Baja-style taqueria is coming to Chelsea Market this summer. Los Mariscos will serve fish tacos, ceviches, aguachile, and lobster burritos. The restaurant will be connected to Chelsea Market's main corridor, but it will also have an entrance at 409 W. 15th St.

— Meanwhile, in Los Angeles: Scott Conant's outpost of Scarpetta in the Montage resort is closing this spring, and Geoffrey Zakarian is rumored to be moving in. It sounds like the resort wants a restaurant that can serve all-day. In a statement, Conant explains: "I can't wait to find another opportunity to share my food and brand of hospitality in LA."

— The Shake Shack team plans to open the new Forest Hills location of the burger chain in April at 71-26 Austin St. This will be the second free-standing Shake Shack in Queens. The first non-airport, non-ballpark Queens location of Danny Meyer's burger chain opened last month in Elmhurst.

— Ligaya Mishan loves the Uzbek fare at Taste of Samarkand in Middle Village, Queees: "Under a lattice of mayonnaise, a salad of beef tongue in pliant strips and crunchy cucumber and matchstick potatoes was refreshing and lighter than the sum of its ingredients. Manti, Chinese dumplings writ large, had yielding skins and steamy centers of ground beef, lamb and pent-up broth. Samsa, meat pastries that elsewhere I’ve found bulky and inert, were flaky and improbably airy."

— And finally, here's how to make Momofuku-style kimchi at home: