Basque-inspired food, Catbird NYC partners with the Metropolitan Museum, more NYC events

Each week, Alexa is rounding up the buzziest fashion awards, hotel openings, restaurant debuts and popular cultural events in NYC. It’s our curated guide to the best things to see, buy, taste and experience around town.

What’s making our luxury list this week? A new spot from the Cervos team, a slick Met jewelry collaboration, and comfortable shoes that aren’t sneakers hit the Flatiron.

Can’t get into Cervos? Try their new place, Eel Bar, around the corner on Broome Street. While Cervos is “a downtown ode to the seafood of the Iberian Peninsula,” Eel Bar is inspired by “the region where Northern Spain and France meet.” This translates into dishes including shrimp and egg gildas (delicious shilas), ham and cheese croquettes, fried mussels on the half shell and black rice a la plancha. And these are just snacks. Pair with one of more than a dozen wines by the glass, a wide selection of vermouths, or a dirty martini that never fails. EelBarNYC.com

When it’s hot, surround yourself with pleasant things. This show, at Demisch Danant in the countryside, is built around bronze. It’s one of the oldest materials known to man, cool to the touch, and designers have used it to make some pretty amazing things. Enter and browse pieces by late greats such as Jacques Dumond, Maria Pergay and César, mixed with contemporary artists Sheila Hicks and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. Through August 17 at DemischDanant.com

The brand known for ultra-comfortable shoes made from sustainable materials (such as yarn made from recycled plastic bottles, hemp and RWS-certified merino wool) has opened its third and largest store in the city, on Avenue 5 in the Flatiron neighborhood. Its 1,880 square meter space features works by the Mexican art collective Caralarga as well as an installation of fabrics woven directly in Rothy’s own factory. The space is a quiet testament to eco-conscious surroundings, with energy-efficient LED lighting, recycled paint from EarthPaint, 100% FSC-certified wood and Marmoleum flooring. Rothys.com

Catbird has just released their second collection with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For two decades, Brooklyn’s beloved sustainable jewelry brand has created exquisitely wearable tassels, made locally using over 95% recycled 14k gold and 95% recycled diamonds. The five designs for The Met were inspired by themes in the Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: The Revival of Fashion” and range from $98 for a Pearl Plum beauty (a nod to a 17th-century still life by Italian painter Orsola Maddalena Caccia) to $990 for a “Moon Bubble” necklace (evoking a moment in an 1859 painting by French artist Thomas Couture). Catbirdnyc.com

“Opacity, Transparency, and Everything in Between” is Najla El Zein’s second show at Friedman Benda. While the Lebanese-French designer and artist has become known for large sculptural works, mostly in stone, this exhibition marks her first foray into glass. There are over a dozen pieces, of considerable size, that she has called “Ensamble(s)”, all made in Amsterdam, where she now lives. After working for so long on an easier-to-control material, she admits that “working in a hotshop is a shocking and unpredictable experience: high temperatures, fumes, flames, constant movement and an unsettling sense of unknown”. However, she persevered and the results are a beautiful addition to her work. Through August 9 at FriedmanBenda.com