New York Restaurant Openings - Week of May 6, 2002
 Restaurants
EDITED BY ROB PATRONITE AND ROBIN RAISFELD
Week of May 6, 2002
Sweet Mama's
Some incentives work better than others. When a rent hike forced Terrie Mangrum to close her Park Slope restaurant, Sweet Mama's, last March, she offered anyone who found a suitable replacement space a lifetime supply of her soulful southern cooking. A year later, she's relocated to Williamsburg, where Ebenezer D. Luxx (pictured, with Mangrum in cowboy hat), who scouted out the new place (and in the process became Mangrum's business partner) may now sup on chicken-fried steak seven nights a week, 52 weeks a year, or at least until his cardiologist intervenes. And Brooklynites starved for Coca-Cola ham, cornmeal-crusted catfish, and collard greens have a much larger space in which to sample those delicacies, not to mention a jukebox heavy on the Allman Brothers, Alabama, and Elvis, plus an outdoor garden. Happiest of all may be Mangrum, back doing what she loves -- simply cooking her Tennessee mom and great-grandmother's recipes for a bunch of grateful Yankees.
559 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn
718-599-4444
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 Cuisine: Soulfood

 

Amma
Amma means mother in Hindi, and it's also a clue: Visitors to this warm, orange-banquetted Turtle Bay newcomer should expect Indian home cooking, not the trumped-up fusion fare that's become so pervasive. So what if there's no actual mom slaving over the lamb vindaloo, Goan fish curry, goat biryani, and chicken tikka? Clean your plate anyway.
246 E. 51st Street
212-644-8330
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 Cuisine: Indian

 

Dolcino
Unless you look carefully, you might not notice that the Italian restaurant Da Beco has changed ownership and is now named for a coastal town in Montenegro, the republic where the three partners grew up. The kitchen will accommodate any off-menu request, ingredients permitting, and fish is ceremoniously filleted tableside. The garlicky zucchini that comes with the bread basket is utterly addictive.
517 Second Avenue, near 28th St
212-448-9505
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 Cuisine: Italian

 

Openings Archive

Week of April 29
Remedy, Atelier, A Salt & Battery
Week of April 22
DoSirak, Tocqueville Cafe
Week of April 15
Da Silvano Cantinetta, Cafe Dor�, win49, Carne, Providence


and more ...

Photo: Carina Salvi