R5 Restaurant Openings, Closings, Kitchen Changes, and Food Events in Westchester County, NY: June 2012

The family behind Grace’s Trattoria and Grace’s Marketplace in Manhattan has opened Grace’s Table (324 Central Ave, White Plains 914-684-8855; graces-table.com) in the space that previously housed Crave Bar & Grill. Joseph Trama, formerly at Grace’s Trattoria, is executive chef. The menu, featuring New American cuisine, includes selections such as pancetta-wrapped shrimp and scallops, pan-seared halibut, Colorado lamb shank, and a 14-ounce, Niman Ranch, double-cut barbecue pork chop (most entrées cost between $23 and $27). A 70-bottle wine list, with most selections between $30 and $90, as well as specialty cocktails, are offered. Grace’s Table is open Sunday to Friday for lunch and dinner and on Saturday for dinner-only

Set to open soon is J-Hotel and eleven14 Kitchen (1114 E Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT), a bi-level, 86-room boutique hotel plus New American restaurant. The executive chef is Francois Kwaku Dongo, formerly at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in West Hollywood and Chicago, and most recently executive chef at Greenwich’s L’Escale. The menu incorporates locally sourced, seasonal ingredients whenever possible and features dishes such as seasonal roasted vegetables, fish, and free-range poultry and grass-fed beef cooked in a wood-burning open hearth clad in copper panels. Salads, pasta dishes, and artisan foods, such as cheese plates, round out the offerings. Main dishes cost $22 to $42. Also in the hotel: Chocolate Lab, a sweets shop and café, where handmade truffles as well as pastries and sandwiches are sold. J-Hotel and eleven14 Kitchen is another restaurant by Greenwich, Connecticut-based cb5 Restaurant Group, which also launched China White in Purchase and in Greenwich and Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar in Greenwich

Photo by John Vecchiolla Grace’s Table’s beet salad with blue cheese

Creme caramel ice cream from Longford’s

Savona (2 Chase Rd, Scarsdale 914-798-0550; savonarestaurant.com) is a new Italian restaurant headed by Executive Chef Andrew Masciangelo. On the menu: spaghetti alla chitarra with veal and ricotta meatballs; salmon with escarole, pancetta, and white beans; and braised beef short ribs. Mains range from $15 to $24. Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer (one of just 106 master sommeliers in the world) has fashioned the 200-bottle wine list. Lunch is served Monday to Saturday, dinner every day, and brunch on Sunday. The restaurant is a sibling of Savona and Bar Savona located in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania

The second location of Manhattan cupcake and layer cake specialist Buttercup Bake Shop is opening in White Plains (168 Martine Ave 914-949-5700; butter cupbakeshop.com) sometime this month. The bakery offers old-fashioned American desserts, including Devil Dog cupcakes ($2.50), peanut butter cup or caramel-pecan mini-cheesecakes ($4.50), orange marble bundt cake ($28), and chocolate trifle ($24 for 64 oz).

Harbor-side French restaurant L’Escale (Delamar Hotel, 500 Steamboat Rd, Greenwich, CT 203-661-4600; lescalerestaurant.com) has two new chefs: Paris native Frederic Kieffer, who served as the opening chef for L’Escale, is the new executive chef, and Henri Donneux, most recently chef/owner at Café Lola in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the new chef de cuisine. On the menu: grilled double lamb chops, fennel-scented dorado filets, crispy skin duck breast, and chicken paillard (entrées cost from $22 to $46). Wendy Young Laurent continues as pastry chef. A raw bar also has been installed onto the 2,500-square-foot terrace for the spring and summer seasons

Tarrytown native Alexandra Sampaio is the new executive chef at the Westchester Broadway Theatre (1 Broadway Plz, Elmsford 914-592-2222; broadwaytheatre.com). Sampaio is an Art Institute of New York alum, caterer, event planner, and former head district chef for the Bedford Central School District. Her specialties include pan-seared tofu with ratatouille, boneless trout amandine, monkfish with red pepper-basil sauce, lemon-garlic lamb kabobs, and Portuguese pork and clams

Nolan and Patricia West are celebrating 20 years of their all-natural ice cream company, Longford’s Own-Made Ice Cream (longfords icecream.com). Longford’s ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt, and gelato ice cream are made at a 3,500-square-foot production facility at 151 Wilkins Avenue in Port Chester, and sold at scoop shops in Rye, Larchmont, and Old Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as area country clubs, restaurants, and hotels // Miyabi Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar (25 Wheeler Ave, Pleasantville, no phone as of press time) is scheduled to have opened by publication date in the space that once housed Jackson & Wheeler.