Trader Joe’s Slated to Open on LES Next Month

New LES Trader Joe’s on track to open next month

Signage is up for the new location of cult favorite grocery store Trader Joe’s at Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side. Bowery Boogie reports that after initially a promised summer opening date, the outpost should be swinging open in October. It will take over about 30,000-square-feet of the new development, at the corner of Grand Street.

Daniel Delaney’s chicken restaurant in Brooklyn — and other coming attractions

Daniel Delaney’s moving his chicken restaurant to the DeKalb Market food hall in Downtown Brooklyn, and his stall looks almost ready to roll. The fried chicken sandwich spot is slated to open to the public next Monday, Sept. 17th. Over in Midtown, controversial sushi chef David Bouhadana is expanding yet again, this time opening an eight-seat restaurant bar at Hotel 32 32. It will be another location of his super tastefully named Handies by Bou. Sprawling beer hall chain Clinton Hall is also expanding. A 7,000-square-foot fifth location is opening in Midtown in October. And the founder of barbecue chain Brother Jimmy’s is back and ready to make some changes. The Murray Hill location will be renovated, and the Madison Square Garden outpost will add a rooftop beer garden.

Two-star review of Prospect Heights newcomer Sofreh

Sleek Prospect Heights Persian restaurant Sofreh nabs a two-star review from New York’s critic Adam Platt, who delighted in the homey fare from owner-chef Nasim Alikhani. He highlights the roast chicken, which comes in a “complex, savory-sweet sauce mixed with saffron and a mash of Persian plums,” as well as the dessert. He particularly liked a yogurt one “heaped with a kind of elemental marmalade that tasted like it came from a time before candies and pastries were invented, when the absolute height of luxury was an orange picked from your own garden.”

An ode to the wonders of Via Carota

New Yorker critic Hannah Goldfield writes a dispatch on how Via Carota, the charming West Village Italian restaurant from Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, is every food world person’s favorite restaurant. “In the way that a writer can be deemed a “writer’s writer,” you might say that Via Carota is a restaurant person’s restaurant,” she writes. The famed cacio e pepe, the svizzerina, the olive all’ascolana, and the cibreo toscana are all good, she says, and even when dishes are “just O.K.,” it’s a perfect restaurant.

Former Mission Chinese beverage director heads to Contra Group

Sam Anderson, the beverage director formerly culling a natural wine list and making cocktails at Mission Chinese, is now taking over the drinks at the Contra Group. The group, responsible for LES hits Contra, Wildair, and Una Pizza Napoletana, is known for its eclectic natural wine selection, and Anderson will continue on that path. Cocktails at the restaurants will change, though it won’t be for a while.