The Joy of Plywood

By JOHN CAPONE

Updated 11:27 AM EST, Fri, Sep 18, 2009

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Eater

Plywood boards are the green shoots of the restaurant world. Plywood and a sign that a favorite restaurant is moving in is the happy counterpart to those sad-sack save-Joe's signs that go up as the last dying embers of a beloved eatery go out. The fall generally brings more of the former and fewer of the latter. And there has been reason to get ebullient over the sign of plywood lately.

As Eater reported, Pies 'n' Thighs in Williamsburg, which may have missed the summer, looks to be coming back in force to help you put on a little winter weight with fried chicken and slow-cooked barbecue. The new digs are on S 4th Street just a couple of blocks over from its old haunt under the Williamsburg Bridge, which the Board of Health found fault with. The opening is expected Nov 1.

Then there was this candidate for the plywood Hall of Fame in the West Village. The Perfect Slice, filling the hole on Hudson Street left when Monster Sushi mercifully fish-flopped away, put up a sign (on actual plywood) that read: "The perfect food will be arriving shortly. Until then, don't eat anything." God knows Hudson Street can use a little humor these days. The opening is expected some time this fall.

And just around the corner on W 11th Street Turks and Frogs looks to be expanding its wine bar and small plate concept. It won't approach the size of its full-fledged restaurant sibling in TriBeca, but is taking over what used to be a laundromat. Despite the antiques in the window (the space that houses Turks was formerly an antique store), it is not really an expansion and, according to one of the owners who was hanging a lamp last night, it is “going to be something totally separate.” What it will be called or when it will open, he wouldn’t say, but from the looks of it, soon.