Da Toscano’s dining room when the restaurant opened in 2020.
Photo: Melissa Hom
The opening of da Toscano in 2020 was a homecoming for chef-owner Michael Toscano. Before leaving New York and opening a restaurant in Charleston, he was the executive chef of Perla, the previous tenant of the Minetta Lane space (and where I once worked as a server). This weekend, he is vacating the space for good, as Sunday will be the final night of service at da Toscano.
But this is not a closing; it’s a move. Da Toscano is set to reopen just a week later, on March 2, inside the century-old Iroquois Hotel in midtown. The capacity at the new location is almost identical to the original, around 60 seats, with lush mulberry-colored banquettes lining the circumference of the dining room. The previous business here was called Triomphe, designed by Adam Tihany; Toscano is going to keep many of those design elements — marble floor tiles, chestnut-hued wood paneling, and oculus skylight — while updating or replacing the furniture, sconces, and interior paint. A Berkel flywheel slicer will be stationed in the dining room to serve freshly sliced prosciutto to order. (Toscano also assumes control of Lantern’s Keep, the adjacent cocktail lounge inside the hotel. He does not plan on changing the name, but the new iteration will focus on Italian aperitivi. Room service, which runs out of the shared kitchen, will lean on that space’s more casual menu, with dry-aged Bistecca burgers and prime-rib steak sandwiches dipped in brodo.)
Food at the new da Toscano will be much the same as the current restaurant: Octopus carpaccio and pappardelle with foie-gras-laced duck ragu both remain, along with dry-aged prime-rib steaks that are slow roasted for 12 hours before they’re portioned and seared. Toscano says the midtown move won’t significantly affect prices, which will be comparatively moderate versus other Italian heavy hitters in the area such as Marea and Ai Fiori. Also on the docket: breakfast and lunch. “Getting to unlock a power lunch with quality, beautiful food in this neighborhood is very exciting for us,” Toscano says.
