The "rest" in "restaurant"...

...is obviously ironic.

2007 is almost over. It's the perfect time for some the year's best new restaurants to rest on their laurels and give this editor a little breath of mistletoe and holly. But, no, they just got to be all enterprising and creative and alluring before the year is out. 

Guess there's no rest for the weary food hound, either. Find below the newest and brightest happenings that I'll be checking out in these last December days. Good thing I got a cute and really roomy tent dress at last week's H&M 'friends and family' deal. 

Fraiche, my hands down favorite new restaurant of the year, wants diners to stick around awhile and enjoy the music. Thursday nights now feature a DJ from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. The lounge menu is fantastic, and the alcohol-fueled histrionics of bar chef Albert Trummer is fantastic-er. 

The Foundry is also cultivating its nightlife scene, updating its already beautiful patio and introducing the Foundry Lounge with a menu that features lobster pierogie (!). And for the arboreally-minded, the olive tree in the patio is doing well: chef/owner Eric Greenspan has provided a proper hole through which it can "continue to grow and prosper."

All'Angelo is introducing ciccheti—Venetian-style appetizers—for dinner service. But before you think it sounds like another restaurant jumping on the small plates bandwagon, the menu is focused and so decidedly Italian: meatballs, radicchio lasagna, octopus salad with bottarga, house-made pasta with beans and rosemary, gorgonzola-infused polenta with braised pork belly, canape with bone marrow. Oh my goodness. In mouth now.

Brunch and breakfast a la brasserie is finally here. Comme Ça has started breakfast service this week while the brunch is set to launch this Saturday at 10 a.m. How would like your oeufs? Les oeufs brouillés, s'il vous plait: I've been practicing for months. How's my French?

Finally, it's not a part of the '07 class but Lou on Vine deserves a special mention, not only because it rocks, but in its sophomore year, Lou is introducing "Tasting Tuesdays" as a follow-up to its deservedly popular Monday Suppers at Lou. As the newsletter wise-cracks, "because absent something witty to say, alliteration is your best friend." The evening will offer two to four different flights of wine with thematic correlation to each other. But what about Lou's sign? It's still looks as unfinished as ever.

(Artist's representation. Not actual sign.) 

—Jiyeon Yoo