At the New Babbo, It's Batali Minus Batali

"It's nearly impossible to eat a meal at Babbo, the recently revived Greenwich Village trattoria, without being pummelled by reminders of its past. This can be quite a pleasant experience. For nearly two decades, beginning in 1998, Babbo was one of the most coveted reservations in New York, reshaping how the city-and, arguably, the entire country-understood Italian cuisine and modern restaurant dining writ large."

"More to the point, it was just a marvellous place to be. It felt essential, intoxicating, urgent, the party-crowded bar area giving way to gracefully spacious dining rooms, the smell of rosemary and wine in the air, the honeyed lighting, the soigné service, the irreverent soundtrack of roaring classic rock. Babbo was the flagship restaurant of Mario Batali, and it became synonymous with his celebrity: charismatic, edgy, expansive, just on the edge of overwhelming."

Babbo in Greenwich Village reopened under chef Mark Ladner with a deliberate blend of memory and reinvention. The restaurant retains its signature atmosphere of crowded bars, spacious dining rooms, rosemary and wine scents, honeyed lighting, and lively music while seeking to excise the taint of Mario Batali's misconduct allegations. The reopening under new ownership prompts curiosity and caution within the food world. Ladner's history at the original Babbo supports an effort to preserve beloved dishes and service standards while presenting a recalibrated identity that nods to the past without repeating its problematic associations.

Read at The New Yorker