Black Ant, a modern Mexican restaurant, is slated to open in the East Village next month at 60 Second Ave. between Third and Fourth avenues. The 2,800-square-foot location will have four different dining areas — a small lounge that seats 15 with an additional 15 seats at the bar, two dining rooms seating a total of 60 plus an open garden that will seat 40. Black Ant also will feature a private dining room with 25 seats. Owners Jorge Guzman and Mario Hernandez, the general manager and executive chief, respectively, are in talks to launch a Mexican restaurant in the West Village called Bacanora, which is named after a plant that grows in Mexico’s Sonora province. The duo also own Ofrenda in the West Village.

Williamsburg: not a place for asking questions. It’s a place for sitting at a slab of oak tree beneath a stuffed goat, and digging on some scrumptious meat pastries... At least it is at Shelter, a spacious Williamsburg lair of whiskey and Argentine-Italian edibles, now open. El Almacen and Rosarito Fish Shack. Same folks behind those created this—a kind of hunting lodge of pizza and empanadas. Which... is a strange combination, yes. But after running the following equation—Pizza + Empanadas + Moose Horns + Whiskey = A Damn Good Time—mathematicians have determined the whole thing works just fine.