Photo of Alloro courtesy Melissa Hom.

Alloro: Green Lantern, party of seven? The photo above depicts Alloro, a new 50-seat Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. The chef is Salvatore Corea, a native Calabrian, who’s leaving front-of-the-house duties to his wife Gina, just like a real-life Artie and Charmaine Bucco. Let’s just hope the mob doesn’t torch their place. Per the press release, the menu features “classic Italian specialties transformed into gastronomical creations,” such as loin of lamb in a fresh mint reduction with eggplant purée and pecorino cheese foam. And Alloro has the additional virtue of granting diners invisibility on St. Patrick’s Day. 307 East 77th Street, (212) 535-2866.

James: The new jewel in Prospect Heights’s crown is this seasonal American restaurant with “old-world European influences.” The principals here are Deborah Williamson and Bryan Calvert (formerly of Bouley), who’ve turned an old brownstone on St. Marks into an inviting looking throwback with pressed tin ceilings, exposed brickwork, and some crazy Dutch Lucite chandeliers. (Eater has photo documentation.) Delicacies include a grass-fed burger with Cotswold cheese, or seared scallops with watercress puree and roasted corn. At the bar, a mixologist fastidiously prepares those classic cocktails everyone’s hooked on these days. 605 Carlton Avenue, (718) 942-4255.

Five Napkin Burger: Man, it must be annoying opening a restaurant with all the premature evaluations from the food blogeratti flooding the web the minute you crack open the door. But opening a burger place must be maddening – just look at the raging bloggery owners of Five Napkin Burger, the self-explanatory new restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, have to stomach. The review from Adam Kuban and Ed Levine at Serious Eats begins with “this is our story” and descends to “neither Ed nor I thought this burger earned its moniker. It was juicy, sure, but with that name, you've gotta step your game up to a whole 'nother level.” Though they’re tough on the 5NP, their mouth-watering photo (left) seems to tell a different story. 630 Ninth Avenue, (212) 757-2277.