Crispy smelt with fried pickles, lime, and Sriracha-tobiko sauce.

In booze-speak, ABV stands for alcohol by volume. It’s also the name of the East Harlem wine bar slated to open next weekend around the corner from Earl’s Beer & Cheese, whence come ABV chef Corey Cova and co-owner Mike Cesari. Compared to the diminutive Earl’s, the 60-seat ABV is practically palatial, with a wine bar, a food bar, and three communal tables. Here, Cesari has teamed up with childhood friends Noah Shannon and his wife, Alexis Kahn, the former director of beverage education at the French Culinary Institute. Her user-friendly list plays with the concept of volume, offering wine by the glass (starting at $7), the half-glass, the half-bottle, and “by consumption,” meaning you pay for whatever measure you drink.

And cheese savant Cova hasn’t forsaken his signature dairy — there’s Sprout Creek Ouray on the sirloin-tartare pizza, aged Cheddar on the pocket burger with fried-egg sauce, and Bayley Hazen Blue purée on the sirloin steak. For dessert: fried blueberry pie. Here’s a look at the space and some of Cova’s latest creations.

ABV Wine Bar, 1504 Lexington Ave., at 97th St.; 212-722-8959

Earlier: Earl’s Beer & Cheese Branching Out All Over the UES

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Little neck clams, tomato-orange broth.

Equipped with a rotisserie and a Kickstarter-funded doughnut-making robot (yes, really!), City Bakery alums Ilene Rosen and Sara Dima are almost ready to unveil their Prospect Heights canteen and mini-mart, 606 R&D, named for its address and owners’ initials. Dinner service begins next weekend, Wednesday through Sunday to start, and weekend brunch will feature dishes like “Grandma Lucy’s puffy pancake” and a Hartmann’s hot dog with fresh kraut and Polish mustard. Evening options include chicken egg drop soup with butternut squash, dandelion, and mustard greens, and braised lamb shank with prunes and black garlic, plus vegetable sides that reflect Rosen’s haute-salad-bar roots.

The rotisserie will be employed not only for chicken, served by the half or whole, but also for drippings-basted cauliflower, and “rotisserie toast” topped with Benton’s bacon. Grandaisy bread and Saxelby cheese are among the gourmet groceries sold up front, where the full bar dispenses kombucha on tap and reconceived classic cocktails like the parsnip-syrup-sweetened “Odd Fashioned.” Here’s a look inside.

606 R & D, 606 Vanderbilt Ave., nr. St. Marks Ave., Prospect Heights; 718-230-0125

Earlier: Time to Make the Doughnuts: 606 R&D Needs Your Help
Brooklyn Bound [NYM]

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Smoked goat meat on Texas toast.

Goat Town chef Julie Farias may have done time at Café Boulud and Le Bernardin, but she hasn’t forsaken her Texas roots. To prove it, she’s just launched a sensational Mondays-only Tex-Mex menu, a tribute in part to her family’s San Antonio meat-market-cum-tortilleria. On the ticket: sopa de lima, barbacoa salad, cheese enchiladas, deep-fried “puffy tacos,” and house-smoked goat meat on Texas toast by way of the neighborhood Japanese bakery (pictured). Will picky Texas gastronomes approve? “I’ll be here every Monday!” crowed an ecstatic San Antonio expat on a puffy-taco high the other night.

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Welcome to the world, Egg ‘N’ Grog pie.

You’d think that with Thanksgiving over and having met their target of 800 pies baked and sold for that holiday, the lovely ladies over at Four & Twenty Blackbirds would let up a bit and stop tempting us with dessert. Nope. No dice. Not a chance. The way they look at it: You can never have too much pie, and a holiday without one is like Christmas in Whoville without roast beast. And so they’ve been busy out in Gowanus experimenting with crusts and fillings, all the while perfecting a brand-new concoction called Egg ‘N’ Grog pie. “Essentially,” they say, “it’s an eggnog custard with a gingerbread crust.” To us, it sounds like something that might finally bridge the gap between Cosby-sweater-wearing eggnog lovers and grumpy eggnog haters. Order online at birdsblack.com.

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At the forthcoming South Village restaurant King, management has contrived a number of ways to make clientele feel like royalty. There’s the “Champagne button” installed at mezzanine tables, to summon a waiter bearing coupes, an ice bucket, and a half-bottle of Veuve Clicquot for $39. There are hors d’oeuvre like Gruyère gougères with beer cream. And then there’s the Eurocentric menu assembled by chef Francis Derby, who’s worked for the likes of Paul Liebrandt, Wylie Dufresne, and David Chang. Some highlights: maple-braised snails on rye with sauerkraut, pig’s-head tortellini with Honeycrisp-apple jus and apple salad, and beef cheek on an English muffin at lunch. Take a look at the menu and a few of Derby’s dishes.

Dinner Menu [PDF]
Cocktail Menu [PDF]
Dessert Menu [PDF]
Sunset Menu [PDF]
Lunch Menu [PDF]
Brunch Menu [PDF]

King, 5 King St., at Sixth Ave.; 212-255-0700

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Chicken leg confit, baby lettuces, orange-dijon vinaigrette.

As long as there is wine, there will be attempts to demystify it. The latest, the forthcoming Corkbuzz Wine Studio, is master sommelier Laura Maniec’s wine bar-cum-living room, which will launch all-inclusive $100 Sunday suppers in December, casual classes on “Takeout Pairings” and “What to Drink Now” in January, and happy-hour blind tastings every Friday night. On a daily basis, though, the focus will be on wine and what to eat with it. Among the options: scallion-pancake-battered Kumamoto oysters; bone marrow with blue-cheese brûlée; and cavatelli with Brussels sprouts, pecorino, and mint, courtesy of chef Hayan Yi, a veteran of Daniel and Le Bernardin. If all goes according to plan, Maniec will start serving in a week or so; here’s her opening menu.

Menu [PDF]
Corkbuzz Wine Studio, 13 E. 13th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 646-873-6071

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Alex Raij.

Until now, it’s been easy for Alex Raij and her husband and partner Eder Montero to commute between their Spanish spots — the Chelsea tapas bar El Quinto Pino and its Basque sibling, Txikito, conveniently situated just across Ninth Avenue. That will change come early next year, when the co-chefs plan to open La Vara, their first Brooklyn venture, in the landmarked Cobble Hill space that briefly housed Breukelen. Although they weren’t actively seeking a Kings County location, Raij and Montero were charmed by the residential character of the surrounding blocks. “We wanted to go to a real neighborhood, not a commercial strip like Smith or Atlantic,” says Raij, who considers her establishments neighborhood restaurants that happen to serve Spanish food.

In the case of La Vara, that food (and wine) will take inspiration in part from the southern Mediterranean regions, and in part from the Moorish and Jewish legacies in Spanish cuisine. The name is particularly apt: Aside from referring to a unit of measure, La Vara was the name of a Brooklyn newspaper written in the Sephardic language Ladino, also known as Judaeo–Spanish. With its original tin ceiling and brick walls intact, the space is in fairly good shape, and if renovation goes especially smoothly, the new owners could be serving latkes by Hanukkah.

268 Clinton St., nr. Verandah Pl., Cobble Hill; no phone yet

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Earl’s diminutive digs.

Fans of Earl’s, the fantastic cheesecentric beer bar on the cusp of Carnegie Hill and East Harlem, love everything about the place except that it’s so tiny and crowded they can never get in. When the equally small adjacent space became available, hopes were understandably raised for a moderate expansion. Alas, it’s not to be, but the good news is that the storefront has been acquired by Earl’s co-owner Adam Clark, who is in the midst of converting it into the Guthrie Inn, a cocktail bar with a limited bar-snack menu. But that’s not all.

Clark’s partner, Michael Cresari, who also co-owns the recently relocated Vinyl Wine shop, is working on a wine bar around the corner named ABV, for the alcohol-by-volume percentage you find on every bottle. When the 55-seat spot opens at 1504 Lexington Avenue near 97th Street, hopefully by the end of the year, its kitchen will be run by Earl’s talented chef Corey Cova. And here’s a tip for Earl’s patrons looking to avoid the evening crush: The place is now open for lunch Thursday through Sunday with a slightly abbreviated, but no less cheesy menu.

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For Spotted Pig alumnus Nate Smith, “gastropub” is more a state of mind than a culinary trend, evoking fresh and seasonal cooking; a quirky, lived-in setting; and a transporting vibe. Allswell is his very personal expression of the form — a 47-seat pub with a quilted-wallpaper effect, blue tufted banquettes, and a twelve-seat reservable “harvest table” in the chaletlike shell of one of Williamsburg’s last Polish relics. The chalkboard menu displays not only Smith’s unabashed Anglophilia (via, say, corned-beef-and-cabbage pie) but also a savvy New York eclecticism, and a nose-to-tail approach to cooking animals procured from Vermont Quality Meats. Other attractions: local beer and wine on tap and a late-night menu served until 3:30 a.m. In time, Smith plans to add brunch, breakfast, and lunch, but for now, here’s a look at a few sample dinner menus.

Sample Menu 1 [PDF]
Sample Menu 2 [PDF]
Sample Menu 3 [PDF]
Sample Menu 4 [PDF]

Allswell, 124 Bedford Ave., at N. 10th St., Williamsburg; 347-799-2743

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Forcella’s Fuorigrotta pizza.

Caputo flour. San Marzano tomatoes. Housemade mozzarella. A 1,000-degree wood-burning oven. It must be another authentic Neapolitan pizza parlor. This one, though, comes courtesy of Giulio Adriani, who is something like the Lance Armstrong of the competition-pizza circuit minus the performance-enhancing-drug allegations. It’s the second and flagship branch of the pizzeria (the first, as pizza aficionados know, opened in Williamsburg this past summer). Amid the Margheritas and the marinaras, the specialty of the 65-seat house is the increasingly popular montanara — a round of dough that’s tossed into the deep fryer, fished out, traditionally topped, then given a whirl in the oven.

Forcella, 334 Bowery, nr. Bond St.; 212-466-3300

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?Macaroni and cheese.

In its expansion to midtown east, the Smith keeps its globally accented comfort-food menu and gains a raw bar, plus, once dinner service is up and running, earlier breakfast hours (from 7 a.m.) to court the office crowd. A second bar anchors a rear space suitable for private dining, and delivery and catering are on the way. For now, new items like lobster Louie and a $115 seafood platter join a something-for-everyone assortment of big salads, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, Wednesday’s fried chicken and potato waffles, Friday’s lobster roll, and the somewhat subversive pairing of pork chop and “Mama’s old-fashioned latkes.” Bear in mind: The “Quarter Pounders” here are jumbo chocolate-chip cookies, not burgers.

Menu [PDF]

The Smith, 956 Second Ave., at 51st St.; 212-644-2700

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White truffles without going broke.

Good news for Tuber magnatum pico addicts: Antonio Galano of Sapori d’Ischia sends word that, once again, he is going to make it rain truffles out in Woodside, Queens. His restaurant begins its annual Alba truffle tribute tonight and will continue celebrating the little musky nuggets every Tuesday through December. It’s four white-truffle-festooned courses, including dessert, for a recession-busting $60, plus discounted bottles of Piedmontese wines. The bad news: This might be the last call for the truffle fest as Antonio’s father, Frank, the head truffle hound, considers retirement.

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