Thanksgiving bang-bang
2024 best new restaurants by season, Nura, Pan Pan Vino Vino, the Jolie Tote
Hello, it’s FOUND, reporting for duty on the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps you still have relatives in town, greedily asking for restaurant recommendations. Maybe they’re not asking, but it’s urgent you find plans for them this evening or weekend. Or maybe you and your partner need to escape yourselves. It happens. We’re here for it.
Today, we look back on four seasons of dining in 2024 NYC via a series of our restaurant Nines lists, freshly updated and annotated with correspondent reports from the field. But first, a bonus new piece on a (literally) glowing FOUND Table in Brooklyn, where this year, the owners opened a new bakery down the street. It’s a perfect bang-bang for your day-after reflection and recovery.
RESTAURANTS • First Person
The bread stands alone
Nura, in Greenpoint, operates in a former auto body shop now lined with warm wood banquettes, a generous (but not suffocating) planting of ivies and succulents, tasteful rugs on the floor, and velvet pillows in the banquettes, all bathed in light the color of orange wine. If the whole gorgeous effect feels familiar, it’s because you know the more famous Lilia, also set in a former garage, also designed by the same talented team.
But you may already know about Nura if you live in Greenpoint or Williamsburg, or if you’ve been to the revamped Kellogg Diner where Nura alum chef Jackie Carnesi landed. These days, Tajeh Porter, an alum of Marian’s in the West Village, is in charge of Nura. Under her command, the kitchen is turning out beautifully composed, often wildly delicious dishes bearing the light flavor and texture imprints of India, the Middle East, and Mexico. These dishes beg to be photographed and then devoured and committed to your permanent food memory.
Nura’s breads are famous, and rightfully so. The Parker house rolls play like wheaty, buttery meringues; the sublimely chewy and flaky naan and roti stand alone, though the optional trio of dips (typically something creamy, something nutty, and a vegetable-based dip) are exceptional.
The sweetly fluffy Japanese sweet potato also could have stood alone, but thankfully it didn’t; I thought about the salsa macha and tangy yogurt dressing tipped over it for many subsequent days. The bitterness of the chicory salad was countered by a highly acidic preserved lemon vinaigrette, with shards of sweet and salty mimolette and substantial torn breadcrumbs deepening the appeal. A hunk of braised lamb, hefty enough for two, slumped against a pile of charred cabbage, brightened with a mustard jus.
The wine list is brief but thoughtful, and there are nearly a dozen signature cocktails, some of which involve savory kitchen ingredients like whey, toasted sesame seeds, and saffron.
Scott Hawley and Michelle Lobo-Hawley opened Nura in 2021, and have more recently opened Pan Pan Vino Vino just a few blocks away. It’s a bakery by day and wine bar by night, with the same great lighting/great vibes aesthetic, and tapas-style food, simpler and more traditional than that at Nura, under the direction of veteran New York chef Alex Ureña. A smart and hungry person with good taste could do well to hit both places in one night. –Laurie Woolever
→ Nura (Greenpoint) • 46 Norman Ave • Tues-Sat 530-1030p, Sun 5-9p; brunch Sat-Sun 11a-230p • Reserve.
→ Pan Pan Vino Vino (Greenpoint) • 120 Norman Ave • Bakery: daily 8a-3p; wine bar: Wed-Sun 4-11p • Walk-ins only.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Sponsor
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RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurant Rush, late fall 2024
Heroes (Soho), Tokyo Record Bar team gets creative in sexy Soho townhouse, intel here
Bar Oliver (Chinatown), Basque-inspired tapas at NYC’s new cool kids corner, intel here