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Jakewalk to Close Next Month, Black Tree Morphs Into Raw Material, and More Intel

The Dos Toros team launches a huge expansion plan, plus more news and gossip from around NYC

[The dining room at Via Carota]
[Daniel Krieger]

The brothers behind the Dos Toros taqueria chain are planning to open four to six new locations annually over the next few years. Some of these restaurants will be in NYC, but Leo and Oliver Kremer also plan to break into new markets like Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, Chicago, and Washington D.C. The duo just got $10 million in funding from GrowthPoint Partners, a company that’s run by Nick Marsh, the CEO of the Chop’t chain. This fall, the Kremers are going to open another Midtown taqueria, which will be the 12th outpost of the chain.

The owners of Black Tree on Orchrad Street closed their farm-to-table sandwich shop in August with plans to reopen it in December as a new restaurant. But now the space is open once again as a new eating and drinking establishment from the same team called Raw Material. A hilarious mission statement on the restaurant’s website explains its "ethically harvested" approach: "One day we could be foraging for mushrooms, ramps, or fiddleheads, the other day we could be digging through discarded building materials, natural clay deposits, or broken shards of marble as the basis for the current menu or retail items." According to Bowery Boogie, it’s in soft opening mode right now with a menu that includes oysters, ceviches, and cocktails.

Carroll Gardens pub Jakewalk is closing for good on October 21. Owner Patrick Watson says that he decided not to renew his lease on the space. This stretch of Smith Street has seen a lot of closures recently. Watson tells Gothamist: "Over the last few years, the higher quality bars/restaurants have closed, rents went from $5,000 per month to now $12-15,000 per month, forcing good restaurateurs and bar owners to go to other, now more popular, neighborhoods." He also operates Stinky Bklyn and Smith & Vine.

Councilman Corey Johnson spearheaded a "small business crawl" on Saturday to help bring some extra cash to shops and restaurants near the site of the Chelsea explosion. A manager at Malibu Diner, which temporarily closed after the explosion, tells the Daily News: "It’s business as usual. We’re starting to get our regular customers back in here again."

Adam Platt gives two stars (out of a possible five) to Claus Meyer’s Agern in Grand Central Terminal: "Although still influential, the great Scandi craze has begun its inevitable descent from the height of fashion into the realm of parody, which, for better or worse, is what dinner at Agern feels like, complete with the aforementioned sacred-beet carving, a selection of meads to choose from (yes, one’s Bushwick brewed!), butter served on chunks of found stone (replete with wood-carved faux peasant butter knives), and discreet references to esoteric weeds procured by ‘our in-house forager’ in the wilds of New Jersey."

David Chang recently put the "McEnroe" sandwich he served at the U.S. Open on the menu at the original Fuku in the East Village. It’s a crispy chicken sandwich with bacon and ranch dressing.

— Rapper Gucci Mane had a sober, post-jail dinner party at Dirty French last week, paid for by Atlantic Records.

The IHOP on 14th Street just lost its gigantic, bright blue awning. The 24-hour diner is undergoing some renovations this month, so maybe the awning will return before work on the space is complete.

— San Francisco is getting a location of East Village Indian hit Babu Ji this fall.

— LA’s second Shake Shack had a line around the block on opening day.

— Greenwich Village Asian small plates restaurant Carma is expanding to the East Village. A new location of the restaurant will open soon at 507 E. Sixth St., which is the space that previously housed Kin Asian Bistro.

— And finally, here’s a look at the duck fat carnitas French dip sandwich at MexiKosher:

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