Torrisi Italian Specialities isn't that old, but the guys behind it (Major Food Group) certainly seem eager to spread their sauce around. In addition to the original downtown location, they've got Parm for the on-the-go set, along with an outpost at Yankees Stadium. So we just can't pretend to be surprised that the team, which was looking at the Tavern on the Green earlier this year, has been tapped to run the central concessions at the High Line.
The upcoming restaurant, a full-service Italian inside a glass box next to the new Whitney Museum. So what to expect?
Although the partners have yet to finalize dishes, design, or even a name, they’ve determined that when the 100-plus-seat spot opens in late 2013 or early 2014, it will serve their style of New York Italian-American food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and that the price range will fall somewhere between their two existing restaurants (in the meantime, they’re busy constructing two new projects on Thompson Street, Carbone and the Lobster Club).
As for why the Torrisi team, which won the gig out of a field of 20 competing restaurateurs, wanted this spot, well: “It wasn’t just ‘Let’s open Parm in the meatpacking [district],’ ” partner Jeff Zalaznick told Grub Street. “The High Line represents a lot of the things that we love about New York. It’s an unbelievable place that these guys found and brought back to life, an incredible piece of the future New York that represents its past.”
It is also a great place for a fancy restaurant to mint money.
