CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: ABC Kitchen; The Mark Restaurant; sautéed branzino with rainbow Swiss chard, preserved tomato and vinaigrette herbal couscous at The Mark; ABC Kitchen market table. BELOW: ABC Kitchen market table
 

IT’S A MAGNIFICENT Easter Sunday, and überchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has finally headed up to his country home in Waccabuc for a day of relaxation—well, not exactly: “I promised I would make a whole roast baby lamb for Hugh Jackman,” he says. “Now the pressure is on!”

Even by Vongerichten’s standards (he oversees 32 restaurants, nine of them in New York) the pressure has been on for a couple of months now. Due to a confluence of circumstances, his newest ventures—The Mark Restaurant in The Mark Hotel on 77th and Madison and ABC Kitchen in the ABC Carpet & Home on 18th Street and Broadway—opened within two weeks of each other.

“People say I am incredibly arrogant to do two restaurants in New York practically simultaneously, but it wasn’t planned that way,” he explains. “I actually had no intention of opening anything else in New York at this point, but then someone came to me with the plans to renovate The Mark, and it looked so exciting, and Phil Suarez, who is my partner in many of the restaurants, was closing Lucy’s in ABC and that space was available. The Mark was supposed to open in September but it was delayed because of construction, and ABC actually opened a month and a half early.”

The new restaurants are very different from each other: The Mark is a chic, modern room with a menu broad enough to accommodate international hotel guests as well as locals who might come on a regular basis. This formula, along with an inviting bar area, is working, and the place has turned into an Upper East Side clubhouse. “Some people have been here 16 times,” he says. Celebs reportedly spotted in the dining room include Barbara Walters, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Martha Stewart.

ABC Kitchen is a more casual spot dedicated to being green and featuring sustainable materials in its design. It has organic food and a beautiful bohemian décor dreamed up by ABC’s Paulette Cole. “I call it my hippie restaurant,” says Vongerichten. “It was a lot of work. Researching the farmers and finding biodynamic wines was not easy.’’

Apart from running endlessly between the two spaces, pleasing all the palates (“The last bite should be as exciting as the first!”), Vongerichten has other matters on his plate. “People have no idea how many details there are,” he sighs. “The music can’t be the same at 6 as it is at 9. You have to watch the lighting and see that each person in the kitchen doesn’t overcook or add too much salt. But opening a restaurant is so exciting. The first three months is the best part; you see all your friends come in. It’s hard to keep that level of energy for years. If it were up to me I would open a new concept every month and then give the place away.” The Mark Restaurant, 25 E. 77th St., 212-744-4300; themarkhotel.com. ABC Kitchen, 35 E. 18th St., 212-475-5829; abckitchennyc.com