Restaurants in Yonkers

Cradled by weathered brick walls and naturally lit by floor-to-ceiling windows, 88 Orchard slings a new selection of locally produced coffees, teas, and baked goods each week. After 5 p.m., the bistro goes undercover by donning a cape of fine wines and a mask of artisanal cheeses to accompany small plates and charcuterie in public without provoking gossip from more traditional bistros. Guests enter beneath a round turret into a corner storefront filled with classic New York charm, from its pressed-tin ceilings to its rough-hewn wooden tables. Free local delivery whisks pastries from Ceci Cela and sandwiches set on crusts from Balthazar Bakery and Amy's Bread throughout the neighborhood. On Tuesday night, an open mic beckons acoustic troubadours to sing for their suppers, though it forbids them to whine for their wine.

Students often give their favorite teacher apples. Melissa Chmelar, however, gave hers homemade syrups and jams. That’s because Melissa's mother frequently took the family on syrup-making excursions, teaching them how to tap trees and boil sap into homemade batches that could compliment country-style spreads. Today, Melissa carries on her mother’s DIY attitude and passion for handcrafted foods as an adult. She even sells her own syrups and jams through the online shop portion of her culinary operation, Spoon.

Melissa doesn’t just sell her food, though—she also caters it throughout the city. With an arsenal of homemade goodies, organic produce grown in upstate New York, and local meat and seafood, she crafts delicious smorgasbords for dinner gatherings, cocktail parties, and special events. Along with baking muffins and breads, she rustles up upscale dishes such as pan-seared salmon with parsley pesto, earning herself coverage in a slew of major publications, including the New York Times, People Magazine, and Metro New York.

Melissa uses the same farm-fresh ingredients at Tbsp, the storefront portion of Spoon. There, she serves visiting patrons everything from from-scratch soups to grass-fed beef burgers flavored with house seasonings. For dessert, Melissa bakes and serves house-made chocolate chip cookies in skillets, topping them off with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Brazil Brazil Restaurant spirits diners away from the helter-skelter streets of New York City into a space rife with french doors, exposed brick, and blond hardwood. Its back patio—a white-trellised three-seasons room and kind of solarium—surrounds guests with lush flora and wrought-iron furniture that exudes the feeling of the tropics, with the scents of grilling seafood wafting over the secluded tables.

This spot is one of the best places to relax in the city, with the New York Times even lauding the patio as a “romantic retreat” and “an ideal place to escape the city’s rapid pace.” Chefs plate flavorful Brazilian dishes such as wine-marinated shrimp or pan-seared red snapper in mango sauce with sides of yucca and fried bananas. Late in the evenings, a Brazilian band starts serenading guests lounging in the bar’s cushy sofa chairs, creating a festive atmosphere. Located next to a host of Broadway theaters, the bistro is a great pre-show spot for on-the-go eaters.

Under the modern hanging lights in La Cerveceria's open kitchen, the restaurant's skilled chefs incorporate organic and locally harvested ingredients into Latin American tapas that boast Peruvian influences. Small plates of marinated meat and spiced seafood pique palates with twists of lime and cilantro or an array of flavorful sauces. Diners can linger for a drink at the eatery's marble bar to wash down a trademark ceviche. Bartenders pour new world wines from small producers, or can pour American craft beers for a rush of suds that rivals the thrill of riding a unicycle through an automatic carwash.

In 1999, Brian Shebairo and his childhood chum Chris Antista planned to sell hot dogs in the alley behind Lansky Lounge, a now-defunct speakeasy that Chris operated on Manhattan's Lower East Side. After two years of sampling franks in hot-dog joints across the northeast, the pair traded in their motorcycles for tongs and opened Crif Dogs—"a name they came up with when Brian tried to say his former partner's name with a hot dog in his mouth." Topped with unlikely but classic American ingredients such as coleslaw, fried eggs, cream cheese, and chopped baseballs, the handmade and naturally smoked Crif Dogs have made it onto Martha Stewart's list of favorite NYC hot dogs for their originality.

The chefs at The Original Pita Grill create Mediterranean-inspired cuisine for lunch and dinner, including greek salads, grill-pressed paninis, and lamb gyros. Handheld menu items, such as grilled-chicken pitas and meatless grape leaves, grant mobility for hurried customers. Hand-made to-order fattoush salads and vegetarian platters slathered with hummus round out orders.