Former Teen Chef Flynn McGarry Takes His Tasting Menu on the Road This Summer

Former teen chef Flynn McGarry’s tasting menu restaurant will be closed for the summer

Former teen chef Flynn McGarry’s tasting menu restaurant Gem is leaving the Lower East Side for the summer. McGarry is taking the critically acclaimed restaurant on the road, though he’ll host a couple of “test dinners” in NYC later this year, he says on Instagram. The point is to gather inspiration for his restaurant’s next phase: “This photo is from the one of the last trips I took before we opened and made me realize I wanted to cook slightly less complicated food and wear more complicated aprons,” he says on an Instagram photo taken in a kitchen in Italy. Gem closes July 29 and reopens on September 4, and a pop-up dinner is slated for London at the end of July.

Openings, coming attractions, and other happenings around town

The team behind French restaurant Mimi is opening a casual bistro called Babs at 72 Macdougal St., in Greenwich Village. Chef and partner Efrén Hernández (Faro) is behind a menu influenced by northern Spain, debuting June 17. Tai Thai at 78 East First St., near First Avenue, in the East Village has reopened after a weeklong closure. But marshmallow shop Squish Marshmallows at 120 St. Mark’s Place is now only open by appointment only this summer. Online ordering and delivery is still up and running. And Fire & Water, restaurateur Ravi DeRossi’s vegan sushi and dim sum spot, has closed after less than a year. The restaurant at 111 East Seventh St. will apparently become a vegan Indian restaurant instead, to be called Nightbird.

Over in Tribeca, the Chinese Tuxedo team is at it again: Their new Southeast Asian restaurant Tiger Tiger is applying for a liquor license at 105 Hudson St. this week. It’s the team’s second attempt at securing a license for their new concept, as the first at 161 Duane St. was shot down by residents. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, new Mediterranean restaurant Seven Seeds opens in the Williamsburg Hotel at 96 Wythe Ave. on Thursday.

Nolita French-Indonesian restaurant Wayan now serving brunch

Chef Cédric Vongerichten’s new French-Indonesian restaurant Wayan is now serving brunch. The menu includes satay bowls like pork with coconut rice, egg, and pickled radish; sandwiches like a shrimp burger with green chili and Thai basil; avocado toast; coconut pancakes topped with fruits; and a baconized nasi goreng, Indonesia’s national egg-topped rice dish.

The Hills cast spotted at Catch

The Hills reboot cast — including Frankie Delgado and his wife Jennifer, Jason Wahler and his wife Ashley, Stephanie Pratt, Brandon Lee, Audrina Patridge, and Mischa Barton — were spotted dining at Chelsea seafood restaurant Catch. After, they headed to the Ainsworth Sports Bar to watch the NBA Finals. The show’s revival returns to MTV on June 24.

East Village’s MoMa ripoff cafe is facing legal drama again

Mamacha — the East Village tea shop that used to be called MoMaCha, until the Museum of Modern Art sued for trademark infringement — is facing legal trouble again. This time, an artist has accused the cafe and the Hole gallery it’s housed in of failing to pay her for sold art, as well as failing to return unsold pieces and damaging others. Dallas-based artist Dan Lam is trying to recuperate the $30,000 she’s owed for eight works sold, plus four damaged pieces and nine that went missing, according to Bowery Boogie. Gallery owner Kathy Grayson claims Mamacha is not a business partner, but a tenant leasing space from the gallery, meaning it shouldn’t be named in the lawsuit.