NYC Restaurants: Devour This Week's Latest Food News

NEW YORK CITY — Gulp, another plate of New York City food news got served this week.

The menu of culinary circumstances this past week had murmurings of a growing "new Chinatown," a chicken-naming ceremony and a beloved ice cream company's expansion.

Once again, your devoted and tiny local Patch newsroom bit off more than it could chew.

With that culinary caveat, here's the latest. We'll be back next week to gorge ourselves.

Is Hell's Kitchen a new Chinatown?

A food critic at EaterNY says it is.

The site's Robert Sietsema highlighted 15 Chinese spots along Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen that, he says, have subsumed the neighborhood's old reputation as a top Thai destination.

• Hell's Kitchen Is A Growing Chinatown: Report

Yet again, New York City spat out several new eateries.

The beloved Van Leeuwen ice cream company expanded to Queens, in addition to two other locations at Rockefeller Center and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

“We are always excited to open new stores, but especially at home in NYC – the place where it all began 15 years ago,” said Ben Van Leeuwen, co-founder and CEO.

Uptown residents looking for something gluten-free and kosher soon will have a new option.

The owners of neighborhood spots Modern Bread and Bagel and Thyme & Tonic plan an as-yet-unnamed kosher and gluten-free eatery on the Upper West Side.

And across the park on the Upper East Side there'll be a new Colombian restaurant setting up shop.

The eatery identified in local board documents as Maria Mulata Colombian Restaurant will move into the former location of Swifty's, a neighborhood haunt that shuttered in 2016.

• Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Opens Shop In Astoria
• UWS Gluten Free, Kosher Eatery Will Open In Former Home Of Calle Ocho
• New Colombian Restaurant To Open In Old Swifty's

A peep of chickens is getting an honor reserved for humans and pets: names.

Valentine, Nugget, Platano, Mocha, Durden Jr., Henrietta, Cluch Vader, Albert Eggstein, Hen Solo, Chicken Little, and Peewee.

Those are the names the lucky birds received during a chicken-naming ceremony at an Upper West Side school.

The school has 11 chickens in its garden and plans to run a farm stand that sells fresh New York-grown produce and local food that includes fruits, vegetables, eggs, herbs, pastas, and bee products from hives located within the garden.

And a human being who runs a Queens restaurant will get an honor from a local hospital.

Mark Boccia, owner of the popular Cajun restaurant Bourbon Street in Bayside, donated meals from his joint to health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic. St. Mary's Healthcare System For Children will recognize Boccia's generosity during an annual walk this month.

Speaking of walking, Park Slope's Open Streets season started Saturday, which means tons of upcoming chances to chow down al fresco.

Also, here's a reminder that Mother's Day is coming up. Patch put together a quick guide for finding a good brunch.

• UWS School Launching New Garden With Chicken-Naming Ceremony
• St. Mary's Honors Bayside Restaurant Owner, Employee At Annual Walk
• Park Slope's Open Street Season Is Ready To Kick Off
• Mother's Day 2023 Brunch: Reserve Now In NYC

And some restaurant news was just bad.

A catering hall in Brooklyn burned last week. The fire took several hours for firefighters to tamp down.

Several restaurants also were ordered shut down because of safety violations found by city health inspectors.

• Fire Rips Through Brooklyn Catering Hall: FDNY, Reports
• NYC Restaurants Ordered Closed April 28 - May 5