East Village Favorite Jimmy’s No. 43 Is Reinventing Itself

Restaurateur plans to breathe new life into Jimmy’s No. 43 space by the end of the year

The East Village restaurateur behind the now-closed Jimmy’s No. 43 says he’s still working with Graham Winton of Paloma Rocket on a new concept for the space at 43 East Seventh St., between Second and Third avenues. Jimmy Carbone tells EV Grieve that plans are on hold due to his health, but will be put back in action at the end of the year, once he recovers from a series of spinal surgeries he had to undergo due to a staph infection. The idea is to open Paloma Rocket-Carbone Pizza in the space of the beloved beer and comic bar, focusing on those two favorites: pizza and beer.

A NYC-born membership club for restaurant regulars is about to go global

Inhouse, a New York-born membership club for restaurant enthusiasts, has just snagged a $2 million investment to expand globally. Members here get priority access to NYC restaurants like Gramercy Tavern and the NoMad, where the club’s founder, Benjy Leibowitz, used to work as a maître d’. That’s where he came up with the idea for Inhouse, a platform that helps personalize members’ experiences at each of the 60 participating restaurants, the idea being that diners be treated as regulars even if they’ve never visited the spot.

Reynard has found Andrew Tarlow’s replacement

Nightlife hitmaker Jon Neidich’s Golden Age Hospitality group — the one behind places like Slowly Shirley and Acme — is taking over Reynard in the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. Andrew Tarlow, who helped open the hotel in 2012, left the hotel and restaurant last year to focus on his other businesses, while remaining business partners Jed Walentas and Peter Lawrence stayed on. Neidich and his group have now become partners in the hotel and will oversee all of its food and beverage, the Times reports.

Two closings and an opening

Longtime Spanish restaurant Casa Pepe in Brooklyn closed its doors late last month, a message on its website states. The Bay Ridge restaurant open since 1980 at 114 Bay Ridge Ave. served a mixture of Spanish and Mexican fare with dishes like seafood paella and enchiladas poblanas. Meanwhile in the East Village, Spanish tapas restaurant Marcha Cocina has closed after three years at 111 Ave. C, between Seventh and Eighth streets.

Catering company Sage Kitchen plans to open a brick-and-mortar location at 352 Bowery, between Great Jones and Fourth streets, which will include a fast-casual restaurant and food market. It’ll open next month.

Times critic schools diners on how to complain at a restaurant

If you complain before leaving a restaurant, you’re more likely to get a response, Times critic Pete Wells writes in a piece that differentiates his job as a critic from diners griping about a crappy meal. Chef Rita Sodi of Tuscan favorite I Sodi says specific complaints can be helpful — yet “saying, ‘This is terrible’ is not complaining. That is being rude. It’s like, ‘You’re ugly.’ It’s telling me that I’m ugly. It’s personal. It’s my food,” she says. The point Wells is trying to get across is, there are better ways for diners to air their grievances than by trashing a restaurant’s Yelp page.

An employee was injured during an attempted robbery at a Queens deli

A Queens deli worker was shot over the weekend in an attempted robbery, according to the NY Post. Four men tried to rob Gourmet Deli in Jamaica around 1 a.m. on Saturday, and when the employee behind the register refused to hand over any cash, he was shot. The bullet grazed the employee’s head, and he was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition.