Kine Musubi is now open on the Upper West Side.
Illustration: Igor Bastidas
If you’re like us, you’re thinking about what you want to do this weekend. We’re here to help. Every Thursday, we offer exactly what this column’s name promises: five things to eat, Friday through Sunday. We’ve sifted through the newest restaurant openings, events, and limited-run menu items so you don’t have to. This week, we’re excited about blackberry-filled brioche, appletinis (and applecanos), Spam musubi, coconut duck curry pastels, and a congee meant for rice nerds.
Curried Duck Pastels at Café Charmant (340 Bleecker St.)
Almost overnight, Saint Theo’s became Café Charmant, the newest, impossible-to-land-a-reservation spot from the folks behind the Corner Store and Or’esh. Sit at the bar and order a plateful of neatly folded, braised duck curry pastels, which takes the kitchen three days to make from start to finish. They’re served with tamarind chutney, but I think they pair better with Charmant’s delicious (and sub-$20!) honey-and-pear martini.
Spam Lakika at Kine Musubi (128 West 72nd St.)
Husband-and-wife duo Chi Ian Chan and Lizzy Han are calling the Upper West Side home after years of serving Hawaiian-style Spam musubi at pop-ups around the city. The menu is tight, and you can’t go wrong with the textural combo of gochujang-coated Spam over furikake rice with crunchy pickled radishes.
Blackberry Brioche at La Cabra Lantern House (515 West 18th St.)
The new Chelsea flagship of Scandinavian cult coffee shop La Cabra is its biggest location in the city, with a new pastry program to draw crowds westward. The flaky, laminated brioche filled with tart blackberries and earthy hyssop is a perfect fall bite, and the orange upholstered interiors inspired by the Danish IC3 train are cozy (and weird) enough to linger in while you finish your cortado.
Apple Cocktails, Three Ways at Lola’s (2 West 28th St.)
Need to have dinner with someone who doesn’t drink, has a toddler to chase the next morning, and wants a big night out? Head to Suzanne Cupps’s restaurant, where a Greenmarket cocktail program centers on individual, seasonal ingredients and uses them in a no-, low-, and full-proof drink. The current Apple menu features a nostalgic appletini, a low-ABV apple-based riff on an Americano, and a refreshing apple cooler.
New-Look Congee at Kiko (307 Spring St.)
Even if you aren’t local to the Hudson Square neighborhood, make a reservation for Kiko’s first weekend of brunch service, which includes congee made with a brand-new rice varietal, a hybrid of Carnaroli, Arborio, and more, that reportedly took 12 years to perfect. It’s an ideal late-morning meal, served with roasted maitake mushrooms, a dashi-marinated gooey egg, scallions, and chile oil.
EAT LIKE THE EXPERTS.
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Dining and Cooking