The contenders
Claudette and Bar Susanne
RESTAURANTS • ROTS
It’s peak season, and thus, high time to reflect on one of FOUND’s annual obsessions: the Restaurant of the Summer (aka ROTS, previously defined here as “a freshly opened place that captures the spirit of that particular season — not unlike a song of the summer”). Here, some reflections on two of the season’s prime contenders, followed by a full set of nine worth your consideration.
Very nearly under the Williamsburg Bridge, Bar Susanne opened in May in the southernmost piece of the Domino Park development. When I dropped by on a weeknight last month for an early dinner, the space was awash in afternoon sunlight streaming through the double-height windows. Those windows (and sidewalk tables) gaze across the street to the East River and the bridge; it’s not quite a waterfront restaurant, but it’s close, and something New York City can always use more of.
In the kitchen is chef Jackie Carnesi, who most recently revitalized Kellogg’s Diner. At Bar Susanne, her focus is seafood, starting with a sizable raw bar from which we enjoyed half a dozen Greenpoint Gem oysters from Cape Cod, flanked by four pickled mussels topped with jugo verde, coconut, and basil, all very nicely done. From there, we went in on boquerones flecked on a pile of ridged potato chips, plated with salsa verde and lemon aioli. Called “Fish + Chips” on the menu, the dish tasted better than it looked. Our mains — brothy beans with squid and fried fluke Milanese — were equally flavorful, and more artfully composed.
One more note: it seems like every place in town is pushing caviar hard right now — and Bar Susanne is no exception. At the start of the meal, our server explained to us that caviar is at the center of the menu, and suggested that we order sidecars (spoons) of caviar with our cocktails. I’m rarely here for such an overt upsell, but on a gorgeous warm night, sure, why not? Served alongside my mezcal-based Sabrosa No. 1 (margarita-adjacent, with a serious rim of Hawaiian black lava salt), the caviar felt like a reasonable summer indulgence at a reasonable price (osetra, $10 per).
By the end of my meal, I’d scrawled “possible ROTS?” in caviar across my reporter’s notebook.
With June came more openings, and a pressing rules query for the ROTS committee: can a restaurant that’s reopening qualify as Restaurant of the Summer?
The establishment forcing the issue was longtime Greenwich Village neighborhood favorite, Claudette, which had been shuttered for nearly two years before its mid-June return. Sitting in the dining room with owner Carlos Suarez the night before its reopening, he told me the tale:
August 2024, he’s on holiday with his family when the landlord calls. While repairing the building, an engineer found the roof lining was terra cotta tile, not steel, which is a crazy fire hazard (and enormous liability). They needed to close the restaurant immediately, finishing service that night, disbanding the restaurant the next day.
As you already know, that wasn’t the end for Claudette and Suarez. One upside to disasters of this sort (see: the great Lure Fishbar flood of 2004) is the chance to tweak the restaurant for the better. And Suarez did, updating the dining room, even covering over a few windows along West 9th to give the larger bar area a more pronounced identity. He also brought in a new chef, Alain Ducasse vet Igor Cabral, who has steered the menu away from its former North African influences into a more solidly French lane; goodbye, chicken tagine; hello, cast-iron chicken. And the sidewalk seating — some of the finest in the city, splayed out on the broad Fifth Ave. sidewalk — looks as alluring as ever.
Another reopening in this year’s summer shuffle: Massara, Stefano Stecchi’s airy, multi-floored Flatiron Italian spot that shuttered last year after a fire. When it first opened, I tabbed it FOUND’s Restaurant of the Summer for 2024; needless to say, I’m excited to return.
Can a restaurant reopening qualify as ROTS? The rules committee has spoken: Yes (as long as the restaurant has been closed for at least a year). Reasonable minds will disagree. Lucky for them, there’s already a full season’s bounty in the ROTS Nines below. –Lockhart Steele
→ Claudette (Greenwich Village) • 24 Fifth Ave • Tue-Sat 5-10p.
→ Bar Susanne (Williamsburg) • 161 Water St • Mon-Tue 4p-12a, Wed 4p-1a, Thu 4p-2a, Fri-Sat 3p-2a, Sun 3p-12a.