NYC Restaurants To Try Tonight

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Picking a restaurant in NYC can be daunting, with hundreds of different options that change frequently. Every week, Patch rounds up the best new restaurants and bars that have opened throughout the city. Here are the best new spots to grab dinner or a drink this weekend.

This week, check out a second version of a beloved Union Square restaurant, a New Orleans eatery in the East Village, and more.

Shake Shack

Where: Locations throughout the city

What to drink: Beer that's made from bread. Shake Shacks in NYC are trying out a new kind of beer that is brewed with small pieces of bread. The drink, aptly named Toast, is a pale ale that’s being poured at Shake Shacks throughout New York City starting on Friday. Toast’s creator designed the recipe in an effort to reduce food waste and to keep uneaten bread from rotting away in the dump. Toast uses unsold loaves leftover from bakeries and unused crusts from sandwich makers, and then adds in hops, yeast and water, according to its website. Toast is debuting at NYC Shake Shacks to coincide with the launch of NYC Beer Week, and all profits from this weekend’s sale of the beer will got to a nonprofit that works to end food waste.

Chat ’N Chew

Where: 10 E. 16th St., near Union Square

What to eat: Comfort food, round two. The popular restaurant Chat ’N Chew shuttered in 2014, after two decades in the neighborhood. Now, it’s back from the dead, providing a rare second chapter for beloved Manhattan restaurants that so frequently close their doors.

Mr. White

Where: 123 St. Marks Place, East Village

What to eat: New Orleans style food. You can get everything from char-grilled oysters to prawns and grits to crawfish po’boys. The idea behind the restaurant came from three longtime industry veterans after a trip to Louisiana.

Ophelia

Where: 3 Mitchell Place, Beekman Tower

What to drink: Fancy cocktails with a great view. The Ophelia is a new cocktail bar at the top of the Beekman Tower with full 360 degree views of the Manhattan skyline. Drinks include "The Flapper," made with vodka, lemon, pineapple, champagne and more, and the "Pain Killer," made with tequila, ginger and lemon.

Image credit: Courtesy of Shake Shack