
This has been good month for veteran restaurateur Mark Firth, not least because it has involved two of his favorite things: oysters and soccer. FIFA World Cup craze has been sweeping the nation, but between soccer games Firth has been multitasking on his latest restaurant, Grand Banks, set to open off the coast of Manhattan this week. Located on a renovated oyster fishing schooner called the Sherman Zwicker, the joint will specialize in the mollusks it was originally dispatched to catch.