Trader Joe’s LES Will Pop Open on October 19

Openings and coming attractions

Trader Joe’s is now taking applications for its new LES store, which will debut on October 19 at Essex Crossing, the Lo-Down reports. The 30,000-square-foot store marks the grocer’s seventh location in Manhattan, and the opening will feature live music, food tastings, and giveaways. Harlem Ale House recently swung open at 101 W. 127th St., bringing with it a dose of the neighborhood’s past. Owner Eric Curtis covers the walls of the pub with vintage findings from the original 150-year-old building the bar is housed in, including bits of a bowling alley that once existed in the space. Brooklyn Chop House, an Asian steakhouse that recently opened in FiDi, will offer unlimited dim sum brunch for $24.99 starting this weekend.

Women in Hospitality United work toward change

Dozens of women from the restaurant sphere recently came together in Williamsburg to brainstorm solutions for issues that plague their industry, such as sexual harassment, mental health, and wage gap disparity. The event dubbed a “solution sprint” was sponsored by Women in Hospitality United, a group founded by a trio of women — including Elizabeth Meltz, a longtime staffer of Mario Batali who has spoken out about the maligned chef’s misconduct — in response to the #MeToo movement. Their goal is to take the ideas proposed and implement them into real-life solutions within the industry.

The meat at Eat’s Khao Man Gai is “mild and unassuming,” critic says

Eat’s Khao Man Gai is known for its specialty whole chickens, but the rice is the real attention-grabber here, writes Times critic Ligaya Mishan in her latest review. The East Village Thai restaurant serves poached chicken that is “mild and assuming” — the bed of rice it sits on, though, commands all the rave, she writes. The rice, whose grains are soaked in chicken broth and sesame oil then steamed in a mixture of crushed ginger, garlic, and cilantro, is a flavorful concoction that steals the show.

Pop-up: Little Tong Noddle Shop x Ferris

Chef Simone Tong of Little Tong Noodle Shop and Jose Alvarez of Ferris join forces for a pop-up dinner series kicking off this weekend. The duo, who met on the line at Alder, will offer a four-course menu with beverage pairings that will include a pork belly dish with passion fruit and Shanghai bok choy, and queso blanco served with papaya lechosa and honeycomb. This is the first collaboration in what Simone is calling the “Cornelia Series,” and will take place at Little Tong Midtown. Tickets are $180 per pair and can be purchased here.

New Yorker critic praises the “unusually beautiful” Hunan Slurp

Hunan Slurp serves soups that are as “carefully composed as oil paintings and bear surprisingly subtle seasoning,” despite the messy connotation that slurping may imply, writes New Yorker critic Hannah Goldfield. Her positive review adds to the praise the East Village restaurant has already garnered for its mifen, or rice noodles that are served in soups. Chef-owner Chao Wang pulls on his childhood memories when he’s in the kitchen, and Goldfield says it’s a pleasure to inhabit his “homesickness, his memories, his palate.”