"Forsythia started out as a pop-up, takeout pasta kitchen just after New York's pandemic shutdown lifted in June 2020. A few months later, it moved into a permanent space on Stanton Street with a kitted-out outdoor dining situation (a heated, waterproof pavilion), which is reliably booked weeks in advance. The chefs here look to Rome for inspiration—see the spaghetti with anchovy butter and breadcrumbs, rigatoni with white pork ragu, and an elegant take on pasta alla norma. If you're really carbo-loading, start with some foccaccia and a plate of the cacio e pepe suppli, and end with a slice of honey cake. To run a restaurant during a pandemic is hard enough, to open one— like Forsythia and these other fantastic new restaurants did —is an almost unimaginable feat." - Andrea Whittle
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