The Mott

This cool, cozy little restaurant on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy looks forbidding from the outside but is actually quite cordial. The downstairs space, which used to house the bar Double Happiness, will be transformed into a lounge sometime in the near future. But for now, executive chef Brian Bieler, formerly of Compass and Upstairs at Bouley, is taking advantage of fresh offerings from the greenmarket to serve up seasonal dishes like asparagus salad with arugula and prosciutto, crispy pork belly with stone fruits and spring lettuce as well as halibut with summer squash and sunchokes.