ASIAN FROM DOWN UNDER AvroKO, the design firm that owns Public restaurant, opened Double Crown (316 Bowery at Bleecker Street, 212-254-0350) earlier this week. Manning the kitchen is Australian chef de cuisine Chris Rendell, most recently of Mews of Mayfair in London, and the food is intended to reflect an intersection of British cuisine and the culinary customs of the Asian part of its former empire. Dishes included tandoori-marinated foie gras with Earl Grey prunes, and Singapore laksa with green tea noodles. Mr. Rendell is working under executive chef Brad Farmerie, who also runs Public. The wine focus is on small, eclectic vineyards.

PHILHARMONIC FILL Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall is now offering a buffet dinner and matinee lunch, as well as pre-theater à la carte appetizers and desserts, at a restaurant called the Center Room (Columbus Avenue at 64th Street, 212-874-7000), which opens today. Chef James Rich most recently was at Trio Restaurant & Wine Bar in Murray Hill. At the Center Room and its sister bar, Arpeggio, which opened in July, the chef is focusing on seasonal American fare, offering dishes such as greens from local farms with local apples, spiced walnuts, and New York goat cheese, as well as a late summer tomato and onion tart.

TWO FOR TAPAS Chef Franklin Becker, currently of Sheridan Square and of Brasserie before that, opened a new tapas place last Friday (as mentioned in Paul Adams’s restaurant review today). The menu at Tierra (130 Seventh Ave. S. at 10th Street, 212-352-2232) has two pages. The first lists small plates from throughout the Mediterranean, from Portuguese-style glazed pork belly to Middle Eastern lamb kibbeh with pomegranate and pine nuts, with suggested wine pairings. Page two starts with the wine, and recommends food to eat with it.

A TOUCH OF THE LOCAL The Park Slope space that used to be Black Pearl is slated to reopen at the end of next week as a modern American restaurant and wine bar called Bussaco (833 Union St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, Brooklyn, 718-857-8828). Former Gotham Bar & Grill general manager Scott Carney is in charge of the place, and he is also the wine sommelier. Brooklyn suppliers will be providing coffee, beer, and such interior touches as the communal table, made out of a first-growth fallen oak from Prospect Park. The chef, Matthew Schaefer, is local, too, as he lives in nearby Cobble Hill. His résumé includes stints in Manhattan at Aquavit, JUdson Grill, and Le Bernardin. Menu offerings will include mini-lobster rolls, clam pizza, veal cheek pot pie, and an oyster pan roast, as well as more refined items such as oven roasted wild striped bass with manila clams. Deborah Snyder, formerly of Lever House, has been brought on as pastry chef.

BROOKLYN BOOMS Although Bussaco will not open until next week, it is handing out soft pretzels tomorrow night from 7 to 10 p.m. as one of more than three dozen restaurants, bars, and food shops on and near Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue — from Flatbush Avenue to 16th Street — that are offering free samples of their wares in the Park Slope’s First Annual Restaurant and Food Tour. A full list of participants can be viewed at buyinbrooklyn.com.

Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com. For more of today’s Kitchen Dish, go to nysun.com.