Cover Story: A New Goings On About Town

“What Shall We Do This Evening?” The Goings On About Town section of The New Yorker has been answering this question since the magazine’s first issue. This week, the section has a new look, but our editors continue to select the very best events in New York. To celebrate our face-lift, we’ve picked some events that tie-in with this week’s cover by Ivan Brunetti.

From left to right, starting with the top column:Chez Sardine 183 W. 10th St. (646-360-3705) 
  Gabriel Stulman’s contemporary take on a Japanese izakaya serves a menu of snacks, sushi bites, and dishes that are full of oddities, ambitious, overwhelmingly rich, and delicious in turn. The successful, more traditionally Japanese offerings tend to be clean and bright. Some sushi bites, like the briney marvel of chopped beef with uni and the delicately smoked arctic char over a mix of chewy and crunchy rice are spectacular. 
  
  
    The distinguished British violinist Monica Huggett heads up Juilliard’s historical-performance program, a recently established but much-needed new outlet for the immense creativity of the school’s international students. She opens her season by leading her young charges in the Juilliard415 ensemble in performances of string quintets by two worthy friends: the great Mozart (in C Major and G Minor, K. 515-516) and his Czech colleague Josef Mysliveček. (Paul Hall, Juilliard School, Lincoln Center. Sept. 24 at 8. Free tickets are available at the Juilliard box office.)
  
  
    “All the Faces of the Moon” 
      Mike Daisey returns to the Public Theatre with a series of monologues, a new one every night, for each phase of the moon. Jean-Michele Gregory, his wife, directs, through Oct. 3. (Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. 212-967-7555.) 
      
      
        Sol LeWitt 
          In this pageant of wall drawings, twenty-two quilted, black-banded panels, describe impossible polygons in ink-washed hues and the light-fondling textures of Masaccio frescoes. Facets and grounds—colored sky blue, forest green, mustard yellow, electric orange, cement gray, Etruscan ochre, dark purple, salmon, and more—don’t harmonize. They clang in an all-around ode to joy. Get it while it lasts. Through Oct. 12. (Cooper, 534 W. 21st St. 212-255-1105.) 
          
          
            “Bowl Train” 
              Questlove, the drummer for the Roots (the house band on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”) takes over the turntables for “Bowl Train,” a weekly party on Thursday nights at Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley and nightclub, begging the question: Does he ever rest? He spins selections from his collection of vinyl records (numbering more than fifty-thousand at this point, and encompassing everything from soul to hip-hop to eighties pop) and screens vintage videos from “Soul Train.” 
              
              
                “Matilda” 
                  With head-spinning alacrity, Matthew Warchus directs a musical based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel with a book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Matilda (the part is played by a rotating cast) lives with her greedy, scheming, vulgar parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (the fabulous Gabriel Ebert and Lesli Margherita), who ostracize her because she reads books. But Matilda eventually finds love with Miss Honey (Lauren Ward)—a teacher who takes her under her wing. All the principals are stalwart and right-minded in their work, including Bertie Carvel, a great new star, who plays Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress of Matilda’s school and the queen of the meanies. (Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 44th St., New York, N.Y.) 
                  
                  
                    Cronuts 
                      Silvia Killingsworth ate a black-market cronut, the fad pastry of the summer that was the brainchild of the baker Dominique Ansel. Later, the magazine’s video team got a preview of Ansel’s next creation, the frozen s’more. 
                      
                      
                        Obits 
                          The band, featuring former members of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and Edsel, specializes in tense, propulsive, and riff-laden tunes that have restored many a grizzled hipster’s faith in rock’s redemptive powers. They kick off a North American tour with a show at The Bell House on Sept. 21, to celebrate the release of their riveting third album, “Bed & Bugs.”  
                          
                          
                            Smorgasburg 
                              In a city like New York, it’s easy to find oysters, tacos, macaroons, cold-brew coffee, kimchi, and just about any delicacy one can think of. In Brooklyn, it’s even easier. They’re all in one place, Smorgasburg, a massive food-centric market with scores of vendors. Saturdays in the East River Park (90 Kent Ave. at N. 7th St.), in Williamsburg, and Sundays at the Tobacco Warehouse (30 Water St.), in Dumbo. 
                              
                              
                                BEAT Festival 
                                  The final week of the Brooklyn Emerging Artists in Theatre Festival features a roving pop-up camper, the centerpiece of “Roadside Attraction,” a performance-installation of nineteen-seventies nostalgia by Third Rail Projects. In Yanira Castro’s “Nancy,” four soloists successively attempt to represent the performer Nancy Ellis. See beatbrooklyn.com for times and venues. (Various locations. 347-762-3281. Sept. 18-20.) 
                                  
                                  
                                    “Everything and All of That” 
                                      What’s the difference between an artist’s studio and a gallery? Not much, judging by this boundary-blurring show of works by three experimental young artists—Charles Mayton, Kathrin Sonntag, and Erika Vogt—who range across painting, photography, sculpture, film, and installation. Through Oct. 20 (Subal, 131 Bowery, at Broome St. 917-409-0612.) 
                                      
                                      
                                        Reading from “The Late Parade” 
                                          The poets John Ashbery, Timothy Donnelly, and Adam Fitzgerald gather on Sept. 19 at 7 at the New York Public Library to celebrate the publication of Fitzgerald’s début collection, “The Late Parade.” Robert Polito, president of the Poetry Foundation, which publishes Poetry magazine, will moderate the discussion. (Fifth Ave. at 42nd St. 888-718-4253.) 
                                          
                                          
                                            Yoga in Bryant Park 
                                              There is an outdoor yoga class on the lawn in Bryant Park, at 6 on Sept. 19 (weather permitting). Visit bryantpark.org for more information. 
                                              
                                              
                                                Main Street Playground 
                                                  Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Main Street Playground has a nautical theme (there’s a boat-shaped sandbox, and the jungle gym has sails) as well as views of lower Manhattan and the bridges that span from Brooklyn across the nearby East River. (Plymouth St., between Main St. and Washington Sts.) 
                                                  
                                                  
                                                    Ahmad Jamal 
                                                      Still confounding expectations at age eighty-three, the pianist Ahmad Jamal joins the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis in the Rose Theatre Sept. 19-21. Jamal is a venerated master of spontaneous small-group interaction (just take a listen to his new album, “Saturday Morning”). It will be fascinating to hear this willfully unpredictable stylist negotiate big-band arrangements of his own work. 
                                                      
                                                      
                                                        Mighty Quinn’s 103 Second Ave., at 6th St. (212-677-3733) 
                                                          At Mighty Quinn’s—a new restaurant that, somewhat suspiciously, bills its food as Texalina barbecue (the sauce is Texas spicy with a Carolina vinegar kick)—when it comes to finding a seat, it’s every meat lover for himself. Mighty Quinn’s Cinderella story is so New York: Hugh Mangum’s stand was one of the most popular at the Williamsburg Smorgasburg, breeding grounds for the hippest of foodie obsessions. People stood in that gravel for hours for a reason: empires have been forged with lesser goods than this brisket. Smoked with oak, apple, and cherry wood, the meat is pink, juicy, and practically melting, with perfectly charred, salty-sweet burnt edges.  
                                                          
                                                          
                                                            Yankee Stadium 
                                                              The Yankees may have stumbled this season, but they haven’t yet fallen out of the playoff race. They still have a shot at a wildcard berth, and you can see if they make it as they play their final home games Sept. 24-26, against the current second-place team, the Tampa Bay Rays. 
                                                              
                                                              
                                                                James Levine 
                                                                  The return of James Levine—sidelined for two years owing to his complex medical problems—to the Metropolitan Opera podium is one of the most eagerly awaited events of the new season. Mozart’s “Così fan Tutte,” a serious farce about male power and female fidelity, has long been a winner for him; his engaging cast includes Susanna Phillips, Isabel Leonard, Danielle de Niese, Matthew Polenzani, Rodion Pogossov, and Maurizio Muraro. (Sept. 24 at 7:30; through Oct. 5., Metropolitan Opera House. 212-362-6000.) 
                                                                  
                                                                  
                                                                    New York Film Festival: Opening Act 
                                                                      Many of the movies that will screen at the New York Film Festival are the work of prolific directors from around the world whose earlier films may not have gotten the attention they merit. The series “New York Film Festival: Opening Act,” playing at Film Society of Lincoln Center in the week before the actual festival, presents some of these notable films, including the South Korean director Sang-soo Hong’s comedy “Night and Day,” from 2008, about a Seoul artist in self-imposed exile in Paris; “Useless,” the Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s 2007 documentary about the trying labor behind high fashion; “Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 P.M.,” from 2001, in which Claude Lanzmann, the director of “Shoah,” sets in context his 1979 interview with Yehuda Lerner, who took part in an armed uprising against the German officials in an extermination camp; and James Gray’s first feature, “Little Odessa,” from 1994, starring Tim Roth as a hit man from Brighton Beach. 
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                        Maison Premiere 298 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn (347-335-0446) 
                                                                          Above a weathered verdigris door in Williamsburg, a sign reading “Bar/Oysters” discreetly marks a French Quarter-inspired speakeasy. But does the nation’s capital of artisanal bitters really need another nostalgia-soaked outpost for herb muddling? In the case of the pitch-perfect Maison Premiere, which complements its absinthe-slanted cocktail menu with a very fresh raw bar, the answer is absolutely.