Results tagged “sorella”

This week Frank Bruni at the Times files a one star review of Monkey Bar, "a big-city big-game reserve for the lions, gazelles and jackals of the urban veldt.... They’ve come because Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair and one of the principal architects of this experience, summoned them. On top of everything else the Monkey Bar is his social pulpit, affirming his ordination as the high priest of a certain fame-focused, power-obsessed sect of Manhattan society... And he fashions a fantasy New York where arrivistes bask in mutual recognition and reciprocal adoration, each mirroring the others’ sense of triumph, the unruly city edited down to one preposterously romantic room for the most unromantic of pursuits: back scratching and social climbing."

Acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis told the New York Times yesterday that he and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia will soon convert the original Kefi into a “comfort food” spot called Gus & Gabriel’s. The restaurant’s name derives from Psilakis’ late father Gus and his three-year-old son Gabriel. Psilakis also told Josh Ozersky that “the logo will be that of an adult and a child; obviously that’s my father, Gus, and my son, Gabriel, but it also a symbolic representation of the individual inner child and their appetite for the reassuring and familiar tastes, especially in hard times.” If one also counts the logo for chef Emma Hearst’s 2-month-old restaurant Sorella (translation: sisters)—which depicts two wine-quaffing, sleepy-eyed ladies, then we have a recession special, mini-trendlet on our hands: restaurants named after family members, with logos depicting family. Too bad the just-opened Grandaisy Tribeca uses its regular, floral emblem instead of a stern-looking senior holding a rolling pin.

What brought you the two of you to Piedmont? I've always had a huge love for Italian food, for its simplicity. We traveled through all of Northern Italy but Piedmont really struck us - the love and hospitality of the people. They know how to use their land well.

Sorella: Chef Emma Hearst (pictured), formerly of Union Square Café, opened her first restaurant over a week ago, but it didn't really catch our eye until the Feedbag's mouth-watering photo essay on Sorella's "ultimate english muffin," which is house-made with duck fat and served with chicken liver mousse, fried egg, and bacon. According to Strongbuzz, Sorella's cuisine is "an ode to [Hearst's] travels throughout Northern Italy." The Allen Street location, formally occupied by the Mexican joint El Portal, has been transformed into a candlelit den of romantic dining, with a bar serving small plates and a second room for dinner. Soon, there will be brunch. 95 Allen Street, between Delancey and Broome; (212) 274-9595