Where To Eat This Weekend In NYC

GRAMERCY, NY — Looking for the best new place to grab dinner on Saturday night? Patch has you covered. Here's our weekly round-up of new restaurants and bars in New York City.

This week, check out a new spot that's a coffee shop by day and bar by night, a Taiwanese dessert chain that's opened in the East Village, and more.

Patent Coffee & Patent Pending

Where: 29 W. 27th St., NoMad

What to drink: Take your pick. This new java-cocktail duo is a coffee shop by day, and a speakeasy-style cocktail bar by night. Patent Coffee offers standard coffee shop fare during business hours, before the doors to the coffee shop shut and guests enter Patent Pending by buzzing in at the street level and then entering through a hidden door to access the underground bar. The coffee shop-bar hybrid is located in the so-called Radiowave Building, where the inventor Nikola Tesla lived and worked for part of his life. The menu includes cocktails like Hit By a Taxi (made with Japanese whisky, armagnac, sweet vermouth, pu’erh tea, curacao, star anise) and Radio Waves (made with tequila, mezcal, agricole rhum, basil, thai chile, lime, cucumber).

Meet Fresh

Where: 35 Cooper Square, East Village

What to eat: Dessert. The Taiwanese dessert and tea shop has opened its first location in New York City, bringing its popular offerings to Manhattan for the first time after expanding to other cities in the U.S. The chain was founded in Taiwan by a brother and sister duo and has expanded around the world as their chewy taro ball desserts grew acclaimed.

Banzarbar

Where: Freeman Alley, Lower East Side

What to drink: Cocktails in a cozy, hidden-away spot. Banzarbar is a new cocktail bar that seats just 20 people. The boutique watering hole is located above the Lower East Side's Freemans Restaurant, and you enter the bar through the restaurant. The a la carte cocktails come with a nautical theme, like the albatross cocktail, made with scotch, Irish whisky, oloroso sherry, black cherry and hazelnut. The bar also offers a tasting menu of four cocktails and accompanying snacks for a cool $95 per person.

Annicka

Where: 544 Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint

What to eat: Annicka comes to Greenpoint courtesy of the popular local brewery Greenpoint Beer & Ale, which launched Annicka as its very first restaurant along with the Brooklyn Farm. Part coffee shop, part bar, and part restaurant, Annicka promises creative dishes made with local ingredients along with hand-crafted cocktails. The restaurant officially opened for business on Thursday.

Maman

Where: 22 W. 25th St., Madison Square Park

What to eat: Pastries and other midday snacks. The popular cafe, bakery and lunch spot Maman has added a new location in Manhattan. The restaurant offers treats including white chocolate blueberry lavender loaf cake, pear and almond cream galette, and more.

Image credit: Courtesy of Simmer, Patent Pending