GG's (CLOSED)

First pastries at the General Greene, then ice cream at Morgenstern's Finest—now Nicholas Morgenstern takes a stab at pizza at his Goat Town revamp. After closing the three-year-old restaurant at the beginning of July 2014, Morgenstern hit the drawing board with Resto vet Bobby Hellen to rethink the locavore approach. “It was due time for a change,” Morgenstern says. “We wanted a neighborhood vibe and a broader menu—to be the place East Villagers go to on a random Tuesday.” The farm-to-table eatery now slings Hellen’s rounds topped with house-made sausages, cured meats and vegetables shuttled from the backyard garden: His signature 1986 pizza, an ode to his beloved Mets, comes heaped in sopressata, fennel sweet-and-sour agrodolce and pickled peppers. But pies aren’t alone in the double-decker oven. More than three quarters of the New American menu will be baked, including roasted branzino with pistachio pesto, lobster in mizuna-and-tarragon butter and crispy lamp atop pea-stuffed agnolotti. Morgenstern also streamlined the white-walled space, sacking the tiled benches in favor of plush, hunter-green horseshoe banquettes. At the marble bar, Goat Town barman Gabe Richter remains to shake up session cocktails like the Quiet American (Campari, soda, beet vermouth) and Grey Gardens (lager, lemon and Earl Grey syrup).