A Rooftop Pool and Bar With a Skyline View Opens in Williamsburg Next Week

A rooftop pool opens in Williamsburg next month, and other coming attractions and openings

The collection of rooftop bars in Williamsburg gets a new player next week at the Williamsburg Hotel, which has a pool along with its full bar and Manhattan skyline views. The hotel rooftop, located at 96 Wythe Ave., will serve food from the downstairs restaurant Harvey, including farro salad and lobster rolls. Frozen drinks, cocktails, beer, and wine are available, too. A day pass for 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. costs $65 Monday through Thursday and $100 Friday through Sunday; the rooftop bar stays open until midnight Sunday through Wednesday and until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. It opens next Friday, July 13th.

Over in LES, the Ridge Hotel also wants to open a rooftop bar, a lounge called Coco Palm. And on Stanton Street, a new falafel restaurant called Falafix has opened, seemingly targeting late-night crowds.

Where Phil Rosenthal eats in NYC

Queens native Phil Rosenthal heads to NYC for one episode of his Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil, which debuts its second season on Friday. amNY talks to the TV personality about the restaurants in the show, including Peter Luger, Di Fara, Zabar’s, Ice & Vice, and a few places just outside the city, like pizza place Razza’s. On Peter Luger, Rosenthal says: “The discovery of that place was almost the discovery of some sort of ancient tribal ritual, that was of a religion you wanted to join immediately.”

Mama Fina’s gets some more love

Alphabet City Filipino restaurant Mama Fina’s, an import from Jersey, gets more love this week with a review from the Times’ Hungry City columnist Ligaya Mishan. Chef Aming Sta Maria serves some of the city’s best sisig, the crackling dish that arrives in cast-iron pans, Mishan says. The “flavors are strong but balanced,” Mishan writes; she particularly likes squid, milkfish, and tuna sisigs, as well as a sinigang soup and the beef a lo pobre, a ribeye steak. Last week, Eater critic Robert Sietsema awarded it three stars.

Grain bowls aren’t going anywhere

Fast-casual restaurants across the country are going even harder on grain bowls for lunch — like salad, but with the addition of grains like quinoa, farro, and rice. NYC chain Fresh & Co. is known as a salad spot, but co-founder George Tenedios says that 40 percent of sales come from grain bowls. Options there range from Middle Eastern-inspired bowls with baked falafel to a Korean barbecue one with pork and mango. Restaurants say that grain bowls are healthy, colorful, and can be creative — and most importantly, they sell.