Robert Bohr's Italian restaurant has a fun vibe, a comfortable dining room, and a menu that's full of winners. But the service is the most impressive part of the equation. The servers here are knowledgeable and attentive in a way that you don't always find at hip Downtown hot spots like this, and rising star sommelier Grant Reynolds will make sure you find something great to drink, no matter how much you want to spend. Charlie Bird is one of the year's big surprises.

Estela is the new home of chef Ignacio Mattos, who developed a cult following at Isa in Williamsburg. He's joined by former Blue Hill beverage director Thomas Carter, and restaurateur Mark Connell. The menu features snacks, shareable small plates, and a few entrees, plus cocktails and over 20 wines by the glass. Mattos's cuisine draws influence from Europe, America, and South America.

The Altamarea Group's newest venture is a relaxed Tribeca cocktail bar and restaurant with a slightly retro vibe. Right now, Eben Freeman is mixing up American classics like the Brandy Old Fashioned and the Grasshopper, and Freeman might also introduce a list of his greatest hits somewhere down the road. The menu from Michael White and his crew includes riffs on American comfort food favorites like patty melts, spinach and artichoke dip, and fried chicken.

At Betony, former Eleven Madison Park executive sous chef Bryce Shuman is serving modern American cuisine in a relaxed setting. The food is similar in spirit to what you might find at EMP, except that everything is offered a la carte, and most of the entrees are priced in the mid-20s. Eamon Rockey, formerly of EMP and Aska, is running the front of the house.

Matt Lambert, a veteran of Saxon + Parole and Public, recently opened this casual new restaurant in the old Elizabeth space. The Musket Room has a handsome dining room and a menu that's inspired by the chef's New Zealand heritage. The menu includes quail with "bread sauce" & roasted onions, seared foie gras, duck with carrot & huckleberries, and tofu gnocchi.

This spinoff of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's wildly popular ABC Kitchen offers market-driven Latin-influenced small plates, many of which are cooked in a wood-fired oven. The menu includes things like spring pea empanadas, crispy fish tacos, poached prawns with paprika, fluke with green chili dressing, and beef tenderloin "burnt ends" with chimichurri. ABC Kitchen's Dan Kluger is overseeing the kitchen here with chef de cuisine Ian Coogan.

The chef Wylie Dufresne, who has been pushing the envelope at his Lower East Side restaurant wd-50 for the past decade, branches out with Alder, in the East Village. This new restaurant eschews tasting menus in favor of an à la carte selection of items like rye pasta with pastrami, Caesar salad "nigiri," pigs in a blanket, and other Dufresne takes on dishes from the pub canon. The food complements an impressive beverage program from Kevin Denton. Jon Bignelli, a wd-50 vet, is executive chef.