Bizarre! This Manhattan Takeout Spot Has a Cashier Doing Checkout Via Zoom

Sansan Chicken made headlines this week, not for its Japanese-style fried chicken, but for its dystopian cashier. At the East Village location of this casual takeout spot, which also has an outpost in Long Island City, Sansan has reportedly set up a live stream screen where a cashier, based in the Philippines, checks customers out via Zoom — despite the time difference. “It’s a lot to ask of your customers, I think. It’s even a little alienating,” one visitor told the publication 404 Media. Indeed, it reads like a work of sci-fi satire, but at the same time, it’s not as hard to imagine these days, when robot baristas are running amok.

NYC cooks get the main stage

The Lineup, a culinary event series, has the mission of giving back-of-house team members the spotlight and resources to develop their dream pop-up restaurant. Now in its third round, the Lineup is kicking off with India Doris, who has worked as an executive sous chef at Fidi restaurant, Saga on April 15, followed by Noah Ponjuan, a sous chef at the Nolita’s tasting menu spot, the Musket Room, on April 29, and lastly, on May 6, Hannah Musante, a line cook at Estela. Each participant has crafted a menu theme that’s personal to them, and often a step outside the food typically cooked at their restaurants jobs, in these limited-run, ticketed dinners, held at the Food52 kitchen space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

An alum of the Aviary alum is working on something new

Executive chef Michelle Chan, of the now-closed Aviary in Columbus Circle, will lead the kitchen Chica & The Don, in Flatiron, with dishes like Peruvian-style lobster fried rice, roast chicken cooked tableside, and ceviche with mango broth. The new, late-night 90-seat Latin American cocktail bar and restaurant comes from Nick Semkiw, a partner in the Lower East Side’s Las’ Lap and previously of (temporarily closed) Mister French, joining beverage director, Elvis Rosario, also a Mister French alum, according to a press release. It opens on April 19 at 24 E. 21 Street, between Park Avenue South and Broadway.

‘Turkish pasta’ coming to the East Village

EV Grieve reports that the team behind the East Village’s Gelatoville has signed on a new food spot they’ll call, Pasta de Pasta, which is reportedly “a Turkish pasta concept” on its way to 192 First Avenue, between 11th and 12th streets.