Look out the window from your seat at Achilles Heel, the new Greenpoint bar from Andrew Tarlow -- whose expanding empire includes Marlow & Sons, Diner and Reynards, among others -- and you'll look straight into the shipyards, where a dock worker might be casually leaning against a brick wall and smoking a cigarette. 
"Were those used in the London Olympics?" whispered our dining companion as we sat down at the bar at The Fourth. He was referring to the sculpture work hanging from the ceiling, which is oddly reminiscent of the hospital beds into which children were tucked in the opening ceremonies as dozens of Mary Poppins characters rained down around them. 
A neon gamophone hung in the window gives a clue to what's inside the deceptively large space at 115 Allen, a Salvation Army store turned a number of failed concepts -- including the former Scotch-fueled hangout Mary Queen of Scots -- that's been given fresh life by Hill & Dale, which opened last night. The new joint is named for the earliest method of recording sound, and it pays homage to the history of that technology with a slew of musical tchotchkes (though you're more likely to hear top twenty pop hits on the speakers than a crackly old record from yesteryear).
Months back, Fork reported that Zak Pelaccio, founding chef of Fatty Crab and Fatty 'Cue, and his wife, Jori Emde, were gearing up to open Fish & Game in Hudson, New York, where they'd secured a building that dates to the 19th century (a former blacksmith shop owned by partner Patrick Milling Smith). At that time, the pair was predicting a winter opening, a deadline they missed by a mile -- they also failed to beat the sluggish Williamsburg Fatty 'Cue renovation, which finished just over a month ago, allowing that place to reopen after more than a year. 
Robert Sietsema
But now, as New Yorkers begin to ponder summer weekend getaways, the wait for the new spot is over, and food-motivated travelers may want to factor Hudson into their plans: Fish & Game opens its doors tonight.
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Brasserie Pushkin, that splashy midtown restaurant with gilded walls and an over-the-top Russian menu, didn't exactly get a lot of love from the critics (exhibit A and exhibit B, the latter of which calls the restaurant exhibit D in support for the argument that there's no correlation between wealth and taste), and it eventually went out with a whimper, shuttering for renovations late last year. But instead of let the spot be consigned to the annals of mediocre restaurant history, owner Andrey Dellos decided instead to rise from the ashes, and he brought on Eleven Madison Park alums Bryce Shuman and Eamon Rockey (Rockey also did time at Atera) to reincarnate the place as Betony, an upscale New American eatery named for a lavender-hued herb, tiny vases of which can be found on the restaurant's bar.
Friends of ours who live in Bushwick looked east down a deserted-looking block of Harrison and said, "I've lived in this neighborhood for ten years, and I still can't believe there's a restaurant down there." Warehouses are quickly converting to lofts near the Morgan L stop, especially around still-hot Roberta's and the cluster of restaurants that has grown up around it, but certain corners remain untouched, even if they won't be that way for long. 
Last week, crowds spilled out of restaurants on the stretch of Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 112th and 118th Streets as neighbors celebrated the return of warm weather with the second annual Food & Drink Boulevard event, where they savored cocktails and croquettes, danced to live music emanating from a nearby dining room, and eventually made their way to another spot a couple of storefronts down, embracing the restaurant resurgence that has swept this neighborhood over the past decade (and especially over the last two years).
This section of street, just above Central Park West, is occasionally spotlighted as one of the next hot neighborhoods, another strip of Manhattan once deemed undesirable that's now coveted for cheap-ish rents and so is changing as a real estate-hungry crowd snaps up deals and takes over the blocks. But Yvette Leeper-Bueno, who opened the restaurant Vinateria in this area just three weeks ago, remembers when this section of Harlem played host to a different set.
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Robert Sietsema Bratwurst at Beekman Beer Garden
Beekman Beer Garden, the beloved outdoor bar near South Street Seaport, was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October. But the summertime hot spot reopened on Saturday, Gothamist learned, and has been serving bratwursts and brews. The bar's Twitter account has been posting sun-soaked pictures all weekend. 89 South St.; 212-896-4600
It's hard to get a table at any hot opening in this city, but we're not holding our breath for it to get any easier at ABC Cocina any time soon. The restaurant made its entrance late last week as the Latin alter ego to sibling ABC Kitchen, located just across the haute housewares store, and if the older place from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger is any indication, Cocina will continue to be a reservations-required hard-even-to-nab-a-bar-seat restaurant long after it's done basking in its debut spotlight. 
Courtesy ABC Cocina
Courtesy of Charlemagne American Brasserie Charlemagne American Brasserie opened in the West Village.
Michael Psilakis opened the latest version of MP Taverna in Astoria on Monday. Other outposts of the Greek restaurant have become popular in Roslyn, Long Island, and Irvington, N.Y. Psilakis told Flo Fab that lamb dumplings, a favorite from his original restaurants, and a Greek paella with seafood and sausage will be on the menu. Diners can order a whole spring lamb, baby goat, or pig five days in advance. 31-29 Ditmars Blvd, Queens; 718-777-2187
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