At twenty-one, Alexia Duchêne was already competing for the title of Top Chef France—though the show had been courting her for years. Ambitious, creative, and allergic to sentimentality, she’s less interested in revisiting the past than in rebuilding it from scratch.

Before Moe Aljaff built the Lower East Side’s newest cult cocktail spot, he was a teenage bootlegger in Sweden, a bar crawl promoter in the Netherlands, and a world champion bartender in Norway. After closing his beloved Two Schmucks in Barcelona, he’s come to New York to stay. Schmuck, on First Avenue, is the cinematic conclusion to Aljaff’s journey, a dazzling, chrome-filled hangout that earned the title 59th-best bar in the world just months after opening.

Before opening Taqueria Ramirez, Giovanni Cervantes and Tania Apolinar ran a photo studio. At lunch time, they’d put down the cameras, take out a griddle, and throw on some tortillas.

Renowned for transforming simple ingredients into stunning dishes at his Copenhagen café, Amator, chef Mati Pichci joins forces with BREADRUNNERS’ official pasta supplier, Eat Wasted, in this silky green pasta with bold flavor and zero waste.

There are few restaurants in New York as beloved—or as singular—as Thai Diner. Perched on the corner of Kenmare and Mott, it’s the brainchild Ann Redding and Matt Danzer, industry veterans who met in the kitchen at Per Se. What they’ve built is an institution humming with the energy of lower Manhattan, perfumed with the aromas of Thailand, and as comforting as any greasy spoon.

Cali Faulkner was surprised when her first restaurant, Third Falcon, landed on the New York Times’ list of the city’s top 100 just months after opening. She shouldn’t have been. With her fine-dining chops and a passion for the flavors of Northern France, it seems inevitable that the dishes coming out of Faulkner’s Fort Greene kitchen are garnering praise.