Bar Stuzzichini is dead, long live Stuzzi. After four years serving up Italian small plates just south of Madison Square, the not small restaurant has got a new chef and a shorter name. The hard wood decor and the collared crowd remains the same.
Heading up the kitchen at Stuzzi, which is no longer affiliated with the TriBeCa Stuzzicheria, is the Italian chef Pasquale Frola, who you might remember from that time he was on Chopped. The Neapolitan toque (who, side note, is married to a Rockette) has cooked in restaurants around Europe and isn't trying to break what wasn't broke at Bar Stuzzichini. So the dinner menu [PDF] still has lots of easy to share, affordable small plates in addition to more expensive fare including pastas in the $18-$25 range and mains like the $34 grilled branzino and $40 Black Angus strip. If you want your small plates and your pastas, well, on Sunday they've got a three-course prix fixe for $35. The restaurant also serves brunch [PDF], lunch [PDF] and desserts [PDF].
All of which is to say? If you are looking for a lively after-work drinks scene in the Flatiron area, Stuzzi is still an option.
928 Broadway // 212-780-5100
