RESTAURANT NEWS & NOTES: KEFI, CIBO E VINO, TAVERN ON THE GREEN, BARLEY & GRAIN, MORE

It’s been awhile since we compiled news about local restaurants. Check out some of the recent buzz about the UWS food scene.

Popover Cafe on 87th and Columbus is closing in a couple of weeks and locals are bummed out, the Times reports. “‘Everyone always got treated the same,’ [owner Carol] Baer, 68, said last week in the restaurant’s yellow and red dining room, which she acknowledged was in need of an update. Streisand waited in line. Warren Beatty waited in line.'”

Cibo E Vino, the restaurant on 89th and Broadway that replaced Georgia’s, has put its menu on its Facebook page. Anyone tried the “Pepe Verde” steak? Check out the menu  here. (Interior pictured at left.)

Greek restaurant Kefi on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th street reopened a few weeks ago after being forced to close for months because of a busted water main. Judd Cady went back on the first night it was open and wrote: “The upstairs is more open, with the elimination of the banquettes, so it doesn’t feel as cramped when it’s packed anymore, and the food was spectacular. We tried all of our favorites; the spreads, the greek salad, the sheeps milk dumplings, roasted octopus, the meatballs, and the veal. All were just as good as ever. I had been jonezing for a kefi “fix” and was not disappointed. What’s also remarkable is how seamless everything was for essentially an opening night. Service was great, and the food came out quickly. It was almost like they had never closed…”

Gothamist interviewed Kefi owner Michael Psilakis. He explained the difference between the restaurant’s first and second floors. “That first floor is very, I would say, modern-looking restaurant. It’s all blue and white, with a lot of mosaic tiles on the wall. It reminds you of a Greek restaurant when you walk in, kind of that island feel. When you go downstairs, it changes drastically from the island to, like, a village. The color palettes are orangey, and brown, and reds; it’s very very warm downstairs. It feels like home.”

Tavern on the Green was expected to reopen for a New Year’s  Eve party, but will be delayed again because of construction issues, according to Crain’s. “‘The complexity of this job is triple what we all thought it would be,’ said [owner Jim] Caiola. A few months ago, for example, the chimney at Tavern on the Green fell down as workers tried to snake some wiring through it. ‘Something like that happens almost every week there,’ Mr. Caiola said, ‘because the building is old and had not been kept up.'” It could open later in January. (photo of Tavern in 1944 above, via the Library of Congress.)

Esquire’s John Mariani checked out two new-ish local restaurants for the Huffington Post. Vinateria, at 119th and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (more West Harlem than UWS but close enough) is a trattoria run by a Barnard grad. “It’s a dreamy kind of place, with a good wine and cocktail list put together by Gabriela Davogustto, with plenty of bottles under $50. The menu is divided into “Light,” “Medium” and “Full,” so sharing is a good idea. There are “snacks” like olives and spiced almonds, cheese and charcuterie, which includes a fine chicken liver pâté.”

Mariani also checked out Barley & Grain, which opened this summer at Amsterdam and 80th. “Smooth and velvety was roasted eggplant with tangy feta cheese, Kalamata olives, sesame tahini, red onions and pistachios, and the mac ‘n’ triple cheese with bacon can easily banish winter’s chill…I really enjoyed the unusual house-cured lamb pastrami sliders with pickled red onion, Cajun fries and rye bun, fighting off calls to share them.”