Chef Anita Lo Revives Annisa for One Night Only

Chef Anita Lo is reviving Annisa, her beloved West Village restaurant for one night only — a private dinner at Chef’s Dinner Table, a private events space, and a “culinary salon.” Taking place for dinner on April 13, the “Classic Restaurant Revival series proudly features our favorite iconic NYC restaurants of bygone days,” the website reads. Lo closed Anissa, located on Barrow Street, in 2017, but in its almost two decades in operation it received a Michelin star as well as three stars from the New York Times, and a nod from the James Beard Awards for Best Chef: New York. Before that, Lo helped open Rickshaw, a dumpling spot, and Bar Q, an Asian barbecue restaurant. The dinner will be hosted at 132 Mulberry Street in Manhattan; tickets are online. “What is remarkable about her food, though, is not exactly the absence of borders but the ease with which she crosses them,” Pete Wells wrote of Annisa in a 2014 review. “Free-form creativity like Ms. Lo’s is rare.”

Teranga is back open in Harlem

After a long hiatus, Teranga, the West African fast-casual restaurant from Pierre Thiam, stationed inside Harlem’s Africa Center returns this weekend. This location first opened in 2019; there’s a sibling at the Hugh, a Midtown food hall.

Local Roots cafe calls it quits

Local Roots, a producer purveyor, will cease operations at its Carroll Gardens cafe in June. The CSA which first launched in 2011 at various pick-up locations through Brooklyn, expanded with its first storefront in 2021. The cafe menu emphasized Wen-Jay Ying’s Chinese American heritage, incorporating her organic produce. Until it closes this summer, Local Roots Cafe will be open Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for brunch with a kitchen close at 3 p.m. “Often times, dreams are very different than reality,” Ying wrote on Instagram. “The day to day stress and constant attachment needed, takes away energy from what I love doing.” The CSA portion of the business isn’t going anywhere and the Chelsea kiosk at Market 57 will remain open as well.

A vegan southern food stand gets the spotlight

Jj’s Southern Vegan, a food stand located inside of Greenpoint ski-themed bar, the Drift, got reviewed by Scott Lynch in Hell Gate this week. The owners have been members of several punk bands, lately swapping guitars for chef’s knives, with dishes like “chicken fried hen of the woods” on offer.