What’s happening: Not long after expanding Nancy Silverton’s Italian gem Osteria Mozza to Washington, D.C., restaurateur Stephen Starr announced last week that he purchased an Italian dining landmark in Manhattan, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, along with its less-expensive neighborhood sibling Lupa, from the Bastianich family.
Why it matters: One-time star chef Mario Batali opened the restaurant in the West Village in 1998, working with restaurateur Joe Bastianch, the son of chef and television star Lidia Bastianich. Babbo brought rustic, heritage Italian cooking—incorporating organ meats into many of its dishes—and an exceptional regional Italian wine list to the city’s fine-dining landscape. In 2017, during the rise of the Me Too movement, multiple women accused Batali of sexual assault and harassment. In the months and years following, companies cut their partnerships with Batali and he divested his shares in the restaurants and food businesses he co-founded, including Babbo in 2019. The new management may give both Babbo and Lupa, which never quite regained their status, a fresh start.
The new owner: Starr is known for a suite of East Coast restaurants and hot spots, including acclaimed Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners such as St. Anselm and Le Diplomate in Washington, D.C., and Le Zoo in Bal Harbour, Fla. The Babbo and Lupa acquisition builds on a growing trend in Starr’s portfolio: partnering with other restaurant leaders like Nancy Silverton (on Osteria Mozza) and Keith McNally (on Pastis).
What will change: Starr is bringing back former Babbo chef Mark Ladner, who was on the restaurant’s opening team in 1998. In the years that followed, Ladner helped open Lupa and another Batali-Bastianich partnership, Del Posto, the Grand Award–winning Italian destination that closed in 2021.
What about the wine: There is no word yet on whether Starr has also acquired Babbo’s extensive cellar of more than 37,000 wine bottles. The program currently encompasses 3,000 selections, primarily from Tuscany, Piedmont and other regions in Italy.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten to Take Over Bryant Park Restaurant
What’s happening: This January, the non-profit that manages Midtown Manhattan’s iconic Bryant Park announced that Bryant Park Grill—a New York City mainstay overlooking the grassy expanse behind the New York Public Library—will be replaced by a new concept. The venue will close in April for roughly a year to make way for a restaurant from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the acclaimed chef behind Grand Award winner Jean-Georges, another dozen dining spots in the city and the Tin Building market and food hall at South Street Seaport. Ark Restaurant Group, which ran the Grill for three decades, lost its lease to Seaport Entertainment Group, which owns 25 percent of Jean-Georges Restaurants group. The new lease is reportedly for 18 years.
Why it matters: In New York City’s pricey real-estate market, restaurateurs have been doubling down on fine dining in popular, high-traffic destinations, with successes like Kwame Onwuachi’s Tatiana at Lincoln Center. While the concept for Vongerichten’s new 1,000-seat restaurant has not yet been unveiled, the spot will capitalize on the chef’s name recognition and pedigree, joining a portfolio that includes Restaurant Award winners like Four Twenty Five in Midtown Manhattan, Jean-Georges Philadelphia and Jean-George Steakhouse in Las Vegas, as well as restaurants in Connecticut, Miami Beach and Nashville.
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Source : https://www.winespectator.com/articles/stephen-starr-babbo-jean-georges-bryant-park
