It's Not You, It's Me; Sometimes Restaurants Need Breaks Too

Every now and then restaurants take a break so owners and employees can keep their sanity.  Despite landing on Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants of 2012, Battersby in Brooklyn is on vacation this week.  They shut things down on Sunday and will be back to 255 Smith Street Tuesday the 4th.

Sometimes restaurants close so they can undergo renovations, as we just saw last week with Pok Pok Wing.  Andy Ricker shut things down for the week of August 19th and opened Pok Pok Phat Thai in the former Pok Pok Wing space.

The Frank's got in on the morph movement back in March.  They shut down Frankies 17 on the Lower East Side and turned the once Italian place into a Basque restaurant called Francesca.

Signs up outside the Lower East Side 'inoteca reveal this week's renovating restaurant.  Jason Denton's 98 Rivington Street restaurant closed yesterday and will reopen Saturday with a reworked menu.

San Sebastian, Meet Frank. Frank, Meet San Sebastian.

The Lower East Side outpost of Frankies shut their doors earlier this week for a quick makeover.  They will reopen tonight as Francesca, a Basque-style restaurant headed by chef Ryan Bartlow.  He made the move from Frankies 570, on Hudson Street, to the new-old location at 17 Clinton Street.  His experience working at Akelarre, a three-Michellin-star restaurant in San Sebastian, shows on Francesca's menu.  There's an attached glossary that will conveniently save the servers the hassle of answering the same question 7,318 times a night.  Good move.

Katie O'Donnell, formerly of Esca, has taken over at 570.

Parma to Iberico; Frankies 17 Switches Hams March 23rd

Katie O'Donnell left Esca and went to work with the Franks.  She replaced Ryan Bartlow at Frankies 570.  Bartlow, who knows a thing or two about Spanish food, is going to the L.E.S. Frankies at 17 Clinton Street.

The restaurant is going to close March 21st, see a two day, Restaurant Impossible-style makeover, and open on the 23rd as a Basque restaurant dubbed Francesca.