The Team Behind Michelin-Starred Rezd?ra Just Opened a New Italian Restaurant in N.Y.C.
Rezd?ra may be one of New Yorkers’ favorite Italian restaurants, but it’s also one of the hardest tables to score in the city. Luckily, the team behind the Michelin-starred spot has just opened a sibling restaurant right around the corner.
Massara, from chef Stefano Secchi and his partner David Switzer, is now welcoming guests in Manhattan, Eater N.Y. reported on Tuesday. (The official opening date is June 17, but the restaurant has recently soft-opened.) The always-buzzy Rezd?ra is focused on the cuisine of Emilia Romagna, while the newcomer will spotlight Campania and the foods you would find there.
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Yes, there will be pasta, but “we would never put agnolotti on [the menu] because that’s a pasta from Piedmont,” Secchi told New York Magazine’s Grub Street. “Even though agnolotti is, like, one of the most satisfying pastas ever.” Rather, you’ll encounter dishes like Cheesemakers Raviolini (filled with smoked buffalo mozzarella and layered with passatas from two different types of tomatoes) and If Pasta Fredda Was Eaten in Amalfi (a cold pasta with red shrimp.)
In the open kitchen, a pizza oven from Naples and a custom wood-burning grill are being put to good use: The former is churning out small “pizzettes,” as well as a two-hour pizza-tasting menu, using a starter that’s been in Secchi’s family for 35 years, according to Grub Street. And the latter is being utilized to cook up steaks, branzino, zucchini, and eggplant, among other plates.
There’s also what Secchi calls a “goat dinner.” The animal will be served four different ways (grilled, roasted, braised, and in cannelloni), with diners preordering the meal for $50 per person. “We never had the space in Rezd?ra to do something like that,” Secchi said. (The older restaurant has 60 seats, while its successor just about doubles up to 105.)
As with the food, the wine list is hyper-focused on one specific Italian region. Only bottles from southern cities like Sardinia and Sicily will be poured, with Switzer telling Grub Street that the confines of that approach are one of the most exciting things about the new restaurant. You’ll be able to wade deep into Campanian labels, perhaps discovering a wine that you wouldn’t have come across otherwise.
If Rezd?ra’s reputation is anything to go by, New York may have just scored another incredible Italian joint.
Click here to see all the images of Massara.
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