Budding Trend Cheese Tea Will Soon Hit East Village

The East Village gets cheese tea

The East Village’s designation as a mini-Chinatown is growing: Chinese chain Mi Tea will soon open at 23 St. Marks Pl., between Second and Third avenues, bringing cheese tea and durian pizza with it. A full-fledged craze in Asia, cheese tea is still burgeoning trend in the U.S. Mi Tea already makes cheese tea — tea topped with frothy milk and cream cheese foam — and other drinks in Flushing. A couple of other shops offer cheese tea around NYC, but it’s still a rarity.

Other openings, closings, and coming attractions

Polish bakery Just Baked! will open in Tribeca at 88 W. Broadway., while Italian chocolatier Venchi will open a local location at 681 Broadway come November. Barbecue restaurant Butcher Bar has closed its Lower East Side location, but is still open in Astoria. East Village’s Handsome Dan’s Snocone & Candy Stand has also closed permanently, while Southern restaurant Southern Hospitality is closed for the next two weeks for renovations.

Famed French pastry chef pops up at Dominique Ansel Bakery

This coming Friday through Sunday, Soho’s Dominique Ansel Bakery will host famed French pastry chef Amaury Guichon. Guichon, who has cooked at Jean-Philippe Patisseries in Las Vegas and Hugo & Victor patisseries in Paris, will make hazelnut rings, pavlova, chocolate cylinders, and other pastries.

Roberta’s finally makes its Los Angeles debut

Bushwick original Roberta’s keeps on getting less and less indie: The counter-culture pizzeria is officially open in Los Angeles, serving the same menu of pizzas and pastas in Culver City, right next to an outpost of Boba Guys. Though this is the first permanent location outside of NYC, the brand has been in expansion mode for a while, with its Urbanspace locations, upcoming Williamsburg outpost, and frozen pizzas.