Rendering c/o Forget About Hospitality
A new Italian restaurant and cocktail bar is on its way to Bleecker Street, and the two people running it have some serious résumés. The chef previously led the kitchen at one of Alain Ducasse’s Manhattan restaurants, and his partner behind the bar oversees mixology for an international luxury hotel group. The name they’ve settled on borrows a phrase every New Yorker already knows.
It’s called Forget About It, and it’s headed for 168 Bleecker Street, between Sullivan and Thompson streets. Chef Alberto Marcolongo and mixologist Federico Pavan are partners in the project, which is backed by Testa Group and Bertoldi Group. It’s also the first venture from Forget About Hospitality, a new platform the four partners describe as a way to develop distinctive restaurants, bars and properties rather than a chain of identical venues.
Rendering c/o Forget About Hospitality
The idea is that the place changes as the night goes on. It’ll open with aperitivo, move into dinner and finish with late-night pasta, and the team says food and cocktails will carry equal weight, so guests can show up for one and stay for the other.
Marcolongo, who’s originally from the province of Verona, worked at Davide Oldani’s Ristorante D’O and the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo in Europe. After moving to the U.S., he served as executive chef at Benoit New York, the Alain Ducasse bistro in Midtown. His menu will start with familiar Italian dishes and ingredients and interpret them through a New York lens. Two details stand out. There’ll be a section called Scarpetta, which turns the ritual of mopping up the last of a sauce with bread into its own menu category. And later in the evening, the kitchen will serve what it’s calling Midnight Pasta (spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chili) to keep things going alongside the bar.
“Our starting point is Italian, but the restaurant belongs in New York,” Marcolongo said in a press release. “We want to work with flavors people recognize without turning the menu into an exercise in nostalgia.”
Pavan built his reputation in Madrid and London, worked alongside Salvatore Calabrese and serves as Group Director of Mixology for Rocco Forte Hotels. His opening cocktail list includes a frozen Forget About (Dirty) Martini, a Tiramisu Old Fashioned, a Bellini Colada and a Negroni Peach Me Up, plus non-alcoholic versions of some of the drinks. His guiding complaint is that too many menus are written for other people in the industry, full of technical language and unfamiliar ingredients. “The complexity belongs behind the scenes,” he said.
The team is leaning on the Italian idea of sprezzatura, making something difficult look effortless, and says the way guests are greeted, how menus are presented and how the room shifts pace over the evening are all part of the plan. As for the name, the partners say it’s an invitation to leave expectations at the door.
Paolo Massimo Testa will serve as VP and creative director of Forget About Hospitality, with Giacomo Bertoldi as president. They’re aiming to open by December.
