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Off the Menu - Whole Foods Market Williamsburg

Florence Fabricant Jul 19 , 2016

Pondicheri This is the first out-of-town foray for a popular Indian restaurant in Houston, and it will start by serving breakfast, lunch and snacks. The wide-ranging pan-Indian menu includes stuffed parathas and rotis, cooling chaat salads and curries. Customers place orders at a counter, and the food is delivered to their tables. Dinner, which will not begin until mid-August, will be more formal, with full waiter service. The owner is Anita Jaisinghani. The pastry chef is Ashley Dickson, who infuses items like madeleines with exotic spices, and the sommelier is Rajat Parr, who has assembled a global list of wines, most of which you may not find elsewhere. The décor is simple, highlighting an original tile floor, with bare tables and a very long bar. “It’s a big bar,” said Ajna Jai, Ms. Jaisinghani’s daughter. “We’re from Texas.” (Opens Monday): 15 West 27th Street, 646-878-4375,pondichericafe.com.

Fifty This is the first restaurant for Alex Kingman, a 27-year-old business school graduate whose family owns the building. The slightly triangular room, which used to house Commerce, is plainer now, with dark tables, slanted mirrors and many fewer Art Deco touches. Original tiles remain. The chef, Luis Jaramillo, is a native of Ecuador; his menu is American but occasionally shows a South American inflection (Wednesday): 50 Commerce Street (Barrow Street), 212-524-4104.

Ladybird Ravi DeRossi opens this vegetable tapas bar serving quinoa croquetas, a gazpacho trio and inventive “charcuterie” like beet chorizo, mushroom pâté and smoked carrots. The chef is Daphne Cheng, who oversees the menu at his Mother of Pearl. The restaurant will donate 10 percent of the proceeds to Mr. DeRossi’s Beast Foundation to prevent cruelty to animals. (Thursday): 127 Macdougal Street (West Third Street), 212-475-2246, ladybirdny.com.

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The Lindeman Seasonal fare, including chicken-fried quail, string bean tempura and lamb meatballs, top the bill at this comfortable far West Midtown newcomer: 508 West 42nd Street, 212-868-2999, thelindeman.com.

Whole Foods Market WilliamsburgThe 51,000-square-foot market has several features not available at other stores in the chain. There’s a food hall with vendors like Luke’s Lobster, No. 7 and Oddfellows Ice Cream; tortillas and tostadas made by Tacombi Flatiron; and Four & Twenty Blackbirds, for frozen ready-to-bake all-butter pie crusts. Baldor Specialty Foods, an importer and distributor, has a kiosk called a Foraging Center, where shoppers can scan a website and order produce that is not in the store. (Tuesday): 238 Bedford Avenue (North Fourth Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-734-2121,wholefoodsmarket.com.

Closing

Appellation Wine and Spirits After 11 years, Scott Pactor has lost his lease and will close the store by early August. He expects to run some final sales: 156 10th Avenue (19th Street), 212-741-9474, appellationnyc.com.

Ça Va Brasserie The Todd English restaurant in the InterContinental Hotel Times Square has closed and will reopen in the fall with Mr. English’s new menu, featuring “global comfort food.”

Correction: July 27, 2016 

A brief report in the Off the Menu column last Wednesday misstated the Four & Twenty Blackbirds item available at the Whole Foods Market in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is a frozen ready-to-bake pie crust, not a frozen pie.