A Running List of New Restaurants That Opened in New York City, March 2021
Middle Eastern favorite Samesa returns with a new Rockefeller Center location, a Tokyo ramen chain makes its U.S. debut in Queens, and more restaurant openings this month
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Nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants across the city continue to move forward with openings, sometimes because their concepts could be adapted for delivery and outdoor dining service, but more often because their owners saw no other choice but to forge ahead. Since March 16, 2020, when the state first temporarily closed indoor dining, hundreds of new restaurants have opened their doors. This list of pandemic-born businesses includes an exciting Indian concept, a tortillería, and a classic, old-school Brooklyn restaurant that’s finally opening.
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Jing Fong workers mobilize to protest the restaurant’s dining room closing
Dim sum legend Jing Fong rocked the industry when it announced that its longstanding Chinatown location would be shutting down its cavernous dining room next week. As customers were lining up to squeeze in one last meal indoors at the institution after the news broke, unionized Jing Fong workers were mobilizing to protest. Bowery Boogie reports that the 318 Restaurant Workers Union has issued a statement condemning Jing Fong’s decision to shut down its dining room, and is urging supporters to attend a rally on March 2 at 11 a.m. at 193 Centre Street, near Hester Street, to stand and protest the closing with Jing Fong workers and union members.
fattmink@gmail.com Last week, local restaurateur Fabiola Maldonado opened her latest endeavor: Paloma’s BK, which, despite sharing most of its name with a Mexican restaurant she also owns on the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, has a decidedly different character. For those unfamiliar with the original Paloma’s, which Maldonado opened in 2016, its menu focuses on a mix of dishes that Maldonado learned on repeat visits to Puebla and Oaxaca, Mexico, combined with gluttonous, familiar Americanized classics like burritos and nachos. Paloma’s BK skirts the latter and concentrates on more traditional fare. On a recent, snowy afternoon at the new location on Knickerbocker Avenue, Maldonado, formidable in her chef’s whites, walked out of the kitchen with a pile of dishes, including quesadillas de flor de calabaza (a squash blossom), ceviche mixto, a jicama agua chile (ceviche, but spicier) and chicken thighs coated in dark mole.