Restaurant review, Northern Spy in East Village: The Apple of Their Eye.

Named after a haunting 1940s showtune, the East Village's Old Devil Moon mounted a menu of what might be called "transgressional cuisine"—things that even the most brazen junk-food addict would concede are not particularly good for you, like Cajun nachos and chicken-fried tofu. When Northern Spy replaced it last November, it was as if the Healthy and Sustainable Fairy had descended from a recycled-water cloud, and affected the substitution with a flick of her wand. The new restaurant is aptly named after an upstate apple descended from ancient heirloom stocks. (By contrast, the owners of Braeburn, another "market-driven" establishment, blew it by picking a modern apple from New Zealand.)

Enter the Spy's intimate space and find it, too, transformed from the Devil days: Now it's all tongue-and-groove board, sturdy park benches, antique mirrors, repurposed chairs, and green-blue wallpapers that add a Martha Stewart touch to the décor. Further demonstrating its tendencies, the restaurant features a food market in the rear, where—this beingwinter—your locally sourced choices are restricted to jams and jellies, little tubs of yogurt, granolas, pickles, and caramels made by hand in Brooklyn.

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