The Top Flr boys double down in Midtown

Good things come to those who wait, but even better things, like rabbit schnitzel, come to those who don’t at The Lawrence’s pre-opening dinners this weekend. For their new venture, the gang behind Sound Table and Top Flr are taking over the old Lupe space to open a minimalist, subway-tiled, primer-painted supper-house-meets-train-station by the end of the month at the latest, but’re hosting preview chow-downs tonight and Friday, and possibly Saturday and Sunday as well pending Rebecca Black’s “cool” seal of approval.

They're keeping the menu for this weekend's affairs under tight wraps, but it'll probably be close to Shane Devereux's/George Brooks' eventual eclectic Southern offerings, which’ll feature Bar Bites like house beef jerky w/ mirin & sambal, crispy pig ears, and potted shrimp w/ toast, plus slightly bigger guys like terrine of ham hock w/ lemon mustard, and browned grits with "Greek Kiss", also a band featuring Thrace Frehley and Paulseidon Stanley.

Middle-sized plates will eventually include duck tongue carnitas and roasted monkfish w/ hen of the woods, smoked clam & garlic jus, while full-on mains will range from stuffed poussin to triggerfish, rabbit schnitzel w/ fennel salad, and a dry-aged strip w/ caramel cipollini & hog jowls, if John McCain hasn’t hogged them all himself already.

This weekend and beyond you can expect both wine and cocktails from mixologists Eric Simpkins & T. Fable Jeon, who're creating house sips like the Florentino w/ La Favorite Rhum, Malmsey Madeira, bitters, and Lemon Hart that's 151-proof, so tell your gf not to wait up for your own schnitzel. Photo by Antoinette Bruno of StarChefs.com