Like it or not—summer is nearing its end. It’s only a matter of time before your local Duane Reade starts decking its aisles with candy canes.
Labor Day weekend is a more abstract finish line, the first Monday in September signaling autumnal new beginnings like fall restaurant openings, the return of Broadway and getting back to school in theory and in practice. It is also the last summer weekend when the city typically empties out, leaving a few more restaurant reservations than normal.
This Labor Day weekend, we aren’t quite seeing the glut of availability we could count on almost every year prior to last, but you can still squeak into some excellent new and classic NYC restaurants.
Tables for two were available at press time, and if they run out, there’s always Thanksgiving weekend.
This is the perfect example of how summer holidays make NYC a little easier to navigate for those of us who stay in town. Just two weekends ago we were trying to book a table at Bar Blondeau, a new small plates destination in the Wythe Hotel from the Le Crocodile team, and there wasn’t anything until late. Get in now if you’ve had your eye on the place.
Book here for primetime reservations all weekend long.
Availability in Crown Shy’s elegant dining room is infrequent, so getting reservations here often feels like a favor. Order the gruyere fritters to share and the roasted short rib just for yourself. And if you love it as much as we do you might want to check out Saga, its super-luxe companion restaurant a few dozen stories upstairs.
Book here for reservations at 9:15pm on Monday.
This easy, breezy Prospect Heights restaurant’s one page menu is filled with hits. There are only right moves here, and we’re particularly fond of the J Bomb frozen cocktail, smoked steelhead trout rillettes, charred lemon skillet mussels and the whole fried fish. Yes, Leland also has non-seafood items.
Book here for reservations at 7:45 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The new expansion of the successful Em Vietnamese Kitchen farther south in Brooklyn serves “basically seafood dishes and small plates Saigoners would eat on a night on the town back in Vietnam,” its owners told us. Em has tons of tapas to share–or not.
Book here for primetime reservations all weekend.
Home to the most exciting new appetizer in NYC, which you get to shatter with a hammer at the table, Little Mad’s open kitchen and industrial-chic dining room are oodles of fun. In addition to that beef tartare and its breakable chip for scooping, it also has soft shell crab, Shin Ramyun-inspired crispy duck noodles with umami foam. See, what’s more fun than foam?!
Book here for primetime reservations Friday and Saturday.
The new, outdoor-only annex of Sushi Noz provides an excellent opportunity to sample some of the original’s exquisite fish at a $75 prix-fixe; hundreds of dollars less than the top tier inside. You can also consider it a primer if you're considering shelling out for its new downtown expansion when it opens this fall.
Book here for reservations at 7pm on Sunday
Woo, woo, woo, imagine you, wearing shades indoors like some kinda TikTok star. Pastis, that one-time celebrity magnet that first opened in the Meatpacking District in 1999 before moving a whole half block away twenty years later, was almost impossible to get into in either iteration, but now you can see what all the fuss was about. You’ll look cool in your sunglasses sipping dry white wine and eating frites on the patio, too.
Book here for reservations at 9:45pm on Sunday.
Big flavors span a small menu with options like fried dates, mackerel tartare, whole fish and half chicken at this promising newcomer on the west bank of the Gowanus Canal.
Book here for primetime reservations all weekend.
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