Tao Group Is Opening Five New Restaurants on the Lower East Side

Tao Group, the international hospitality company behind Tao Downtown, Cathédrale, and other venues, is headed to the Lower East Side with five new restaurants and bars this fall. The concepts will all be located in the forthcoming Moxy hotel on the Lower East Side, set to open in late October, according to Page Six. (Google lists an October 26 opening date for the hotel.) The new spots include: Sake No Hana, a modern Japanese restaurant; a rooftop bar called the Highlight Room; the Fix, a lobby cafe and bar; a piano lounge called Silver Lining; and Loosie’s, a nightclub with an “early 2000s” vibe.

Parents are ‘squirming’ over Slutty Vegan

Slutty Vegan, the famed Atlanta burger chain that recently opened in Fort Greene, apparently has Brooklyn parents “squirming” over its unconventional branding. “I would not feel comfortable bringing [my kids there], where they would be bombarded with these kinds of messages about women and sex,” one Park Slope parent told the New York Post. The burger counter with seven locations nationally sells sandwiches named the One Night Stand and the Hollywood Hooker, an attempt to reclaim those words and make vegan eating “sexy,” according to founder Pinky Cole. “If I were to name this concept Pinky’s Vegan, how many people do you think would have been there?” she said last month.

In search of Panama, in New York City

There are some 210,000 Panamanians living in the United States, yet the Central American cuisine remains relatively unknown, according to the New York Times. In New York City, a handful of chefs are bringing more representation to the region, with restaurants serving corn tamales steamed in banana leaves, empanadas, and carimañolas, a stuffed yuca dish.

A Korean tofu pocket counter expands

Yubu, a small counter specializing in Korean fried tofu pockets, opened a second location over the weekend. The new shop opened in Soho at 46 Grand Street, near West Broadway, on September 30, with a menu that lists barbecued meats, seafood, and sauces that are served over a spoonful over rice and then wrapped in bean curd for a bite-sized snack.