Koo Zee Doo

Giving your establishment a foreign name offers the American public the perfect opportunity to butcher its pronunciation, which is probably why En C'est just never quite caught on. Serving up traditional Portuguese cuisine under a wisely phonetic moniker, Koo Zee Doo, opening Friday

Idiot-proofed for American tongues, Koo Zee Doo's a nod to "cozido", meaning "cooked" in Portuguese, and that's the style of cuisine (handed down from one owner's mother) that'll be showcased via share-worthy family-style dishes in the former Copper storefront, now tweaked into a 48-seat BYOB with exposed brick yielding to olive green walls, new counter seating offering a prime view of the open kitchen, and tables in both dining rooms topped with cork, unlike the bottles of Mad Dog you'll pile on them. Starters include clam & rice soup, as well as collards & chorizo in puréed potato broth, along with a range of classic Portuguese appetizers like salt cod croquettes, grilled prawns, and creamy shrimp turnovers, which the Portuguese call Rissóis de Camarão, even though they contain no mullet. The entrée side leads off with Caldeirada de Marisco, a seafood (clams, prawns, whiting, cuttlefish...) and potato stew, which's joined by other of-the-sea selections like grilled salt cod w/ punched potatoes, and grilled sardines w/ roasted pepper salad; meatier plates include stewed rabbit w/ potatoes, braised/pan-seared duck w/ chorizo over baked rice, and a pork & bean stew traditionally known as Feijoada ã Transmontana, also the name of Hannah's cross-dressing Brazilian cousin

Starting next month, Koo plans to offer Fri-Sun lunch service, as well as implement a monthly five-course tasting menu inspired by the cuisines of Brazil, Goa, Mozambique, and Macau, which were all once Portuguese colonies, whose relationships with their motherland were close. Super close.