Danny Meyer’s Sky-High Manhatta Has a Hospitality Problem, Critic Says

Manhatta’s bar space lacked Danny Meyer’s signature hospitality, critic says

New Yorker’s critic Hannah Goldfield visited Danny Meyer’s latest sky-high restaurant Manhatta for this week’s Tables for Two, but although Meyer is supposed to be known for hospitality, a variety of things about the experience didn’t “strike me as all that hospitable,” Goldfield writes. There were questionable rules at the first-come, first-serve bar area, and reservations weren’t available within 28 days. Plus, when offered a spot on a wait list, the reservationist noted that 400 people were on it ahead of her. Once she “somehow” got a table one night, the experience was “wildly different.” People were kind and the food hit the mark, but doesn’t sound like it made up for the other aspects.

Tørst has a new chef and happy hour

Greenpoint’s Danish bar Tørst has tapped new chef Jared Ferguson, who previously worked in San Francisco restaurants Sons & Daughters and Lazy Bear. Chef Chuy Cervantes departed for the new Cosme in LA. The bar also has a new natural wine program as well as a new happy hour. On weekdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., select cans are $5, and there’s a 25 percent discount on snacks and sandwiches, 33 percent discount on wines by the glass, and 20 percent discount on a bottle list that has more than 250 options.

An appraisal of packed vegan soul food restaurant in Harlem

In this week’s Hungry City, critic Ligaya Mishan of the Times finds that the vegan soul food at Harlem restaurant Seasoned Vegan is drawing crowds for good reason. Chef Brenda Beener’s fermented soy, looking like tuna, has “a satisfying funk,” and fried “shrimp” in a po’ boy, made from konjac, absorbs the flavor of a seaweed brine and ends up being quite filling. The meal ends with an almond milk ice cream that’s “thick and rich,” sandwiched between “two equally mighty cookies.” “It is the real thing,” Mishan writes.

New Yorkers are becoming more chill about ice cream truck music

According to data collected by Localize.city, this year saw a 20 percent decrease in 311 complaints about ice cream truck jingles. The study found that certain areas, particularly near parks and playgrounds that ice cream trucks target, have a high volume of complaints. The top three areas most likely to get riled up about the music were in Jamaica, near Captain Tilly Park; a stretch of Manhattan between Madison Square and Union Square parks; and the Kings-bridge section of the Bronx near Van Cortlandt Park.

An opening and a closing on the Upper West Side

Seafoody restaurant The Flying Fisherman opened 269 Columbus Ave., between West 72nd and 73rd streets. The restaurant will later open a takeout spot called Fish on the Fly next door. Meanwhile, Mediterranean restaurant Hamsa at 421 Amsterdam Ave. at West 80th Street has closed.