The Habitat: This charmingly designed bar and restaurant we reported on a few weeks ago opens tonight. Built almost entirely out of salvaged lumber, The Habitat has achieved a rustic back porch ambiance by building an actual porch next to a wall dressed up with exterior siding and fake windows. Chef Ashley Engmann's small plate menu has empanadas, a pecan mandarin salad, cheeseburgers, and other sandwiches. 12 New York microbrews are on tap. 988 Manhattan Avenue, between India and Huron, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 383-5615. more ›

New York City's urban rustic trend keeps on trucking with the newest addition to Greenpoint’s ever-expanding nightlife scene, The Habitat. Housed in an old convenience store and built with lumber salvaged from as far away as Maine, the bar and restaurant will let Brooklynites savor back porch ambiance without having to breathe the air from the nearby sewage treatment plant. The kitchen is located behind what looks to be the exterior wall of a house, and a raised deck seems destined for late-night bluegrass jams. more ›