The John Dory Oyster Bar (CLOSED)

April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s original Meatpacking District John Dory was an ambitious, pricey endeavor, but its reincarnation in the Ace Hotel is an understated knockout. Tall stools face a raw bar stocked with a rotating mix of East and West Coast oysters, all expertly handled and impeccably sourced. True to form, the rest of Bloomfield’s tapas-style seafood dishes are intensely flavored. Chilled lobster tastes larger than life, its sweet flesh slicked in an herbaceous tomalley vinaigrette. Meanwhile, warm dishes take their cues mostly from the garlic-and-olive-oil belt: soft-shell crab drizzled with harissa aioli, plus tender squid stuffed with boisterous chorizo in a smoked tomato vinagrette. Though the utilitarian sweets aren’t worth sticking around for, the top-notch seafood merits the inevitable wait for a table.