Vanderbilt Avenue's Sunburnt Calf will be reborn tonight as Hawker Bar.
About 18 months after opening, owner Heathe St. Clair has passed on this as well as its sister restaurant on the Upper West Side to longtime employees Matilda Boland and Tim Harris, who have tweaked the style, while keeping many of Sunburnt Calf's elements in place.
The decor remains largely unchanged, as does the general Asian-fusion theme. But while some items, such as Crispy Thai Chicken Rolls and Mings Special Fried Rice, will stay, most of the menu is new.
The name alludes to Asian hawkers selling street food (though St. Clair is not a fan of that term), and the menu is filled with food-cart favorites.
There will be nine choices of "stix," skewers of meat and shellfish grilled over bichotan charcoal (whatever that is). Varieties include Chicken Hearts, Thai Sausage and Chili Montauk Squid. There are five choices of buns (such as Chili Cumin Lamb), the same number of choices of rolls (Pork and Black Mushroom is one) as well as Thai salads, wraps and large plates. This new menu includes more Thai standards such as Pad Thai and Green Curry Chicken, Tofu or Shrimp.
For fans of the Upper West Side Calf, that venue will be split in two, with the ground floor becoming Burke & Wills, an Australian bistro that opens next month and the second floor changing into the Manhattan Cricket Club, a "speakeasy-style bar with cocktails by Greg Seider" to open in the fall, according to Zagat.
Anyone try it yet? Let us know how it is in the comments.
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