Self-styled as an antidote to the increasing private club culture, with English public houses as the inspiration, this bar and restaurant is welcomingly casual with an open setting, seats at the bar and bare tables. The menu retains the informal vibe with onion fritters, burgers, sandwiches and a flatiron steak au poivre. A taste of England comes with a fish-and-chips sandwich, lamb curry cottage pie and sticky toffee pudding. The brews include Guinness on tap; a glass of Prosecco (a modest $10); and a 2019 Morgon will only set you back $52 by the bottle, $13 for a glass. (Opens Thursday)

570 Vanderbilt Avenue (Bergen Street), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 347-365-4401, thevauxsocial.com.

Cavaleras Social

A new source for enchiladas suizas, a personal fave rarely done to perfection, goes on my must try list. The menu at this new Upper East Side Mexican spot a few steps below the street, with a stretch of gilded bar, sticks to the usual, including an inviting list of eight tacos. The menu takes a brief detour to the Middle East with a plate of roasted beets with goat cheese and labneh. It's owned by three partners originally from Santa Clara in Ecatepec, just north of Mexico City, two of whom also own the Calaveras NYC and Calaveras Corner on the Upper West Side. The chef, Edgar Munoz, is from Leon, Guanajuato.

240 East 75th Street, 212-837-1777, calaverassocial.com.

Chuan Bistro

It won't be necessary to perform a lion's dance for the Lunar New Year at this taste of Chengdu, a food-lover's city in Sichuan Province. Starting with the holiday and continuing year-round, the restaurant is offering the cosplay option of dining while wearing a silky Hanfu robe of Han dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 A.D.) inspiration. The menu, served in areas strung with lanterns, hews to tradition with dishes like black fungus with wild pepper, Chongqing spicy chicken, cold pigs tongue, beef tripe and offal in chile sauce, spicy beef tendon, cumin lamb chops, hot and sour potato shreds, and pickled cabbage with duck blood. There's a $10 fee for the Hanfu robe rental; $40 if you want makeup and styling. There are also performances in the evening.

135-21A 37th Avenue (Prince Street), Flushing, Queens, 718-586-0000, chuanbistro.com.

Daily Sprouts Café

Slip on the Birkenstocks (with socks, it's cold) and you're properly shod for a visit to the Upper East Side bakery that avoids white flour in favor of sprouted grains, buckwheat and other nubbly components. The owner, Svetlana Martynova, an interior designer, started experimenting with such items during the pandemic, came up with a grainy slab she calls KindaBREAD and now has a business. She uses mostly sprouted flours like whole wheat, buckwheat, einkorn and spelt. Flaky zucchini torta, sprouted garbanzo bean hummus, a chicory latte and avocado toast are on the menu of the spare, brick-walled storefront and kitchen done in subdued gray with seating around the perimeter. A branch is coming to 223 East 80th Street in the spring.

163 East 92nd Street, 212-410-0703, (no web yet).

Hav & Mar Chef's Counter

Just when tasting menus appear to be losing steam, Hav & Mar has introduced a new Chef's Counter Menu of seven courses, offered Tuesdays through Saturdays. Just nine seats with a kitchen view are served the $130 menu, including a take-home memento, by the executive chef Fariyal Abdullahi, working with Marcus Samuelsson. Sweden and Ethiopia meet in bass in doro broth, salmon seasoned with berbere, and roasted duck breast with confit biryani.

Starrett Lehigh Building, 245 11th Avenue (26th Street), 212-328-8042, havandmar.com.

DEJAVU

Lounge? Restaurant? Speakeasy? This new installation at the edge of the West Village provides all three in rooms labeled Emerald, the bar and lounge with music up front; Golden, where up to 40 people can dine by candlelight on beef carpaccio, lemon spaghetti with caviar, and Turkish manti in yogurt sauce; and the intimate speakeasy style Red room, open late, showcasing live burlesque and serving tasting menus.

394 West Street (West 10th Street), 646-479-0777, dejavunyc.com.

Looking Ahead

Sake No Hana x Seirinkan

The Japanese have taken pizza from slice shop to atelier and now they're exporting their accomplishments. Japanese Neapolitan pizzas, with typically charred and bubbled crusts bearing simple toppings, made a pop-up debut in the hands of Pizza Studio Tamaki at Moody Tongue in the East Village earlier this month as a prelude to its permanent installation there. Now Susumu Kakinuma's Seirinkan from Tokyo, said to have inspired Pizza Studio Tamaki, will be in residence from Feb. 24 to 28 at Sake No Hana on the Bowery. Margherita, marinara and Fuji white with wasabi pies will be crafted and served alongside Sake No Hana specialties like snow beef tataki and salt and pepper chicken wing robata.

145 Bowery (Broome Street), 212-249-0315, taogroup.com.

Laurel Bakery

Redwood Hospitality's popular bakery in the Columbia Street Waterfront District has closed. It will reopen in April in Prospect Heights adjacent to the company's restaurant, Cafe Mado. The owners, Steve Wong and Piper Kristensen, said they had been wanting to relocate the bakery closer to Cafe Mado. Any closer and it would be tucked inside.

791A Washington Avenue (Lincoln Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Eataly Cortina

The Winter Olympics will continue for the rest of this week, but at Eataly markets in North America they'll be linger through the end of March. A special section called Cortina Capsule will showcase cheeses, cured meats, sweets and coffee from Alpine regions, all sold retail. La Scuola, the cooking school, will feature recipes and special dinners with the food of the Northern areas. The restaurants will serve some regional dishes like spaetzle and potato gnocchi, and at the quick-serve counters there will be panini made with ingredients from Italy's north, including the Cortina with speck and Taleggio on baguette.

eataly.com.

Chef on the Move

Michael Clancy

This French-trained chef has returned to Juliette, a 20-year old bistro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he had cooked for many years. In addition to the Gallic staples for which the restaurant is known, he's adding duck confit, a French dip and croissant bread pudding.

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The Vaux Social Brings an English Public House to Brooklyn