Former Jungsik Pastry Star Eunji Lee to Open a Flatiron Dessert Shop Next Year

Former Jungsik chef Eunji Lee to open a pastry shop next year

Star pastry chef Eunji Lee, formerly of the two-Michelin-starred Korean restaurant Jungsik, has signed on with Hand Hospitality Group to open a pastry shop near the Flatiron Building. Details about the shop, including its name and exact address, are still under wraps, but a spokesperson for the restaurant group tells Eater that Lee will focus on “high end” and “highly aesthetic” desserts. The pastry shop is slated to open February of next year.

Lee departed from Jungsik in March, citing a desire to open her own business in New York City. Over a five-year tenure at the Tribeca restaurant, the pastry chef became known for her playful desserts — including those shaped like bananas and calamansi fruit — backed by a classical French background. For the opening of the pastry shop, she’s teaming up with Hand, the prolific hospitality group behind Midtown restaurants Her Name is Han and the newly opened Little Mad. It’s not clear at this time if the desserts Lee served at Jungsik will make their way to the new shop.

In other news

— Restaurateur Eddie Song has transformed a vacant lot at 316 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of East 32nd Street, into an evening hangout with food from Koreatown businesses. Maiden Korea is currently partnered with Kushi Kushi Yaki and Gopchang Story, and Song says other partnerships are in the works, including plans to host pop-ups from the venue.

— Ridgewood event space Nowadays fully reopened last month with a busy lineup of summer programming. From Monday to Wednesday, the venue screens movies from an outdoor projector (free, no reservation). Indoors, Diner by the Izakaya is once again running the kitchen, now serving ice cream sandwiches from It’s-It in San Francisco.

— The hospitality group behind Australian cafe chain Hole in the Wall is headed to Florida. Parched Hospitality plans to open two locations of a new restaurant called Isla Cafe, with openings planned for West Palm Beach next January and South Beach next February.

— Kitty’s, an Hudson, New York restaurant worth traveling for, is hosting a one-day pop-up with snacks and vinegar flights this Saturday. The event is a collaboration between Brooklyn-based vinegar company Tart and Hudson Valley’s Current Cassis.

— The outdoor restaurant at McCarren Park appears to be a go. At a community board meeting on Tuesday, Brooklyn Bazaar founders Aaron Broudo and Belvy Klein shared plans to serve coffee in the mornings before opening as a full-service restaurant in the afternoon.

— At Savinos Quality Pasta in Williamsburg, owner Cono Savino is betting on imported French groceries as the store bounces back from the pandemic.

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