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Ess-a-Pickle
1470 39th St., 917-701-4000, Borough Park, Brooklyn
The Lower East Side lost a little bit of its soul when Guss' Pickles called it a day. Russian immigrant Izzy Guss started his business in 1910, at a time when there were at least 80 pickle pushcarts and shops in the area. But Izzy is long gone (Guss' has been under different ownership for years). And Guss' isn't really gone; it's just relocated to cheaper Brooklyn digs and has a new name. Ess-a-Pickle ("ess" is Yiddish for "eat") is a humble, kosher storefront, the place for a peck of pickled peppers as well as horseradish and sour, half-sour and spicy pickles. Proprietor Pat Fairhurst sticks to Izzy's recipe traditions, also pickling green beans, mushrooms and mixed vegetables. The shop is closed from Friday afternoon through Saturday in observance of the Sabbath.

Má Pêche
15 W. 56th St., 212-757-5878, Midtown West, Manhattan
After a months-long trial period, Má Pêche has finally opened to the public in Midtown's Chambers Hotel. The austere, bi-level space has a bar area upstairs and a busy downstairs dominated by a cross-shaped communal table. David (Momofuku) Chang's team of iconoclastic chefs, headed by Tien Ho (ex–Café Boulud), bang out artful Vietnamese-French dishes with a meaty focus. Since the sustainable farm sources are credited, it's a place that feels safe to order beef tartare, served here with scallions and mint. There are also buttery, wild Burgundy snails with pork sausage, and pork ribs in a lemongrass reduction. Currently open for breakfast and lunch, with a smaller bar menu at night, the eatery is still a work in progress, but an exciting one, especially when it comes to takeaway desserts from the location's separate Milk Bar; offerings include the trademarked candy-bar and "crack" (toasted oat crust and gooey butter filling) pies, and cookies in blueberry cream and chocolate-chocolate varieties, among others.

Taureau
127 E. 7th St., 212-228-2222, East Village, Manhattan
This corridor of 7th Street is an axis of eating, with great sandwiches (Porchetta, Luke’s Lobster), gourmet Greek (Pylos), cheap eats (Caracas Arepa Bar), cupcakes (Butter Lane) and now a jam-packed French bistro specializing in fondue. Taureau comes to us from Marseille-born Didier Pawlicki, owner of SoHo's La Sirène. Pawlicki offers a warm welcome and cauldrons for cooking beef, melting cheese or chocolate. Varnished wooden tables have built-in induction ranges. The restaurant's dark, intimate ambience and meals built for two make it a romantic date destination. The other factor drawing the crowds is the BYOB policy, which helps cut the cost of wooing.

Tamarind Tribeca
99 Hudson St., 212-775-9000, TriBeCa, Manhattan
Top-rated Tamarind, located in the Flatiron District, now has a bigger sister in TriBeCa, a spinoff that offers a more ambitious and creative Indian menu. The vast, contemporary, windowed space caters to a business crowd during the day (check out the three-course, under-$30 executive lunch) and a more general moneyed crowd at night. Many patrons congregate around the long bar, drinking fruity cocktails and snacking on rosemary nan, samosas with potatoes and pomegranate or lentil-and-rice pancakes with mushrooms, eggplant and green chilies. On the ground floor of the bi-level dining room, the glassed-in kitchen is like a stage set, where chefs skewer meats for the tandoor oven and cook lobster masala and chicken roulade with red chilies, pistachios, cashews, rose petals and saffron.

Zengo
622 Third Ave., 212-808-8110, Midtown East, Manhattan
Star tenor Plácido Domingo, along with Richard Sandoval (Maya) and Akhtar Nawab (ex-Elettaria) have partnered to open this whale of a production. The three levels include La Biblioteca, a basement bar displaying 400 types of tequila, many from small batch distillers and artisanal producers. The main floor is Zengo, a dark, Spanish-style setting with suspended wood beams, wrought-iron screens and an enormous black chandelier. On the mezzanine level is the comfy Sake & Shochu Lounge. Hip design team AvroKO brought the concept to fruition. Zengo's Latin-Asian fusion menu features ceviches, sushi rolls, dim sum, noodle and rice dishes, plus braised beef short ribs with Oaxaca cheese–potato puree and chipotle-miso–glazed black cod.