A Beverly Hills hotspot popular with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford and Kendall Jenner is coming to Manhattan’s chic Soho neighborhood next month, Side Dish has learned.
Restaurateur Michael Della Femina’s Croft Alley – which serves “inspired comfort food” – is slated to open at 210 Sixth Ave. at the corner of Prince Street. Greek eatery Lola Taverna stood there until it shuttered in June.
Della Femina’s father Jerry Della Femina is the 89-year-old ad legend whose memoir “From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor” inspired the “Mad Men” series. Della Femina père owned an eponymous East Hampton eatery that closed in 2011 after almost two decades in business.
At around 1,500 square feet, Croft Alley will have indoor and hopefully outdoor seating, with entrances on MacDougal Street and Sixth Avenue.
Della Femina’s partners are Adam Rubin, Andrew Shanfeld, Madison Bright and chef Phuong Tran. The new restaurant will serve all-day fare and feature the Croft Alley signature menu with tuna melts and a $30 order of soft scrambled eggs, black truffles, avocado, prosciutto and toast, along with new dishes tailored for NYC.
Della Femina tells Side Dish that he has always been drawn to the neighborhood – his grandfather grew up right by the site of the new restaurant, in a building that is home to Blue Ribbon Sushi today.
Della Femina previously owned The Stork Club on Sullivan Street, where he launched StoreFront Productions. Its current projects include “In the Weeds,” where director/producer pal Michael Mailer – the son of the late novelist Norman Mailer – has joined the cast. It’s now filming in both LA and NYC.
The streaming series is a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos and characters who inhabit a “barely fictional” restaurant with “eccentric staff, demanding investors, intrusive neighbors, and the mounting chaos of hospitality life.”
Croft Alley has been in LA for 11 years – first in West Hollywood at the Standard Hotel, where it was open 24/7 until the pandemic hit, and now in Beverly Hills, which Della Femina described as “a neighborhood that was desperate for what we provide – fun, casual and unpretentious, with delicious food.”
In Beverly Hills, Croft Alley is a breakfast and lunch spot with private events at night, as well as a weekly cocktail club.
The New York location will be open for dinner, too.
Della Femina, who grew up in New York, said expanding to the Big Apple was a natural step, something his LA clients have been asking for.
“We’ve been looking for the right space for four years,” the restaurateur remarked.
He called his dad a “huge inspiration” whose former East Hampton restaurant is his all-time favorite.
“I can still taste some of those dishes,” said Della Femina, adding that a signature family dish may also be on the menu.
The decor will likely include a 1940s radio that has been set up at each family restaurant, he said.
We hear… that some beloved NYC eateries are now offering brunch, New Yorkers’ favorite weekend sport, Italian style. In Midtown, Fresco by Scotto, the eatery owned by Good Day New York’s Rosanna Scotto and her family, is launching a Saturday brunch this weekend at 34 E. 52nd St. Think champagne, live music, DJ sets and dishes like cacio e pepe omelettes, tiramisu pancakes with mascarpone and cocoa, egg toast with shaved truffle and fontina on brioche, and a brunch pizza bianca topped with truffle bechamel, wild mushrooms and a sunny-side egg, as well as a Mediterranean chopped salad — all from executive chef Orlando Alvarez. “Bottle service specials” will also be available…
We hear… In the West Village, Dell’anima, the popular Italian restaurant that launched in 2007 and most recently relocated to a chic new 52-seat spot at 18 Cornelia St. this past summer, is launching weekend brunch — part of the eatery’s revival by longtime partners Andrew Whitney, the executive chef; Danir Rincon, the general manager; and Jacob Cohen. Dishes include uovo al purgatorio, baked eggs in a tomato base with pancetta and herbs; uovo funghi, poached eggs in a parmesan polenta with mushrooms; a smash burger with pancetta, fried egg, remoulade, carmelized onion and fontina; and French toast. They’ve also introduced new fall cocktails like “Fall Into It,” with rum, pomegranate juice, spiced demerara syrup, cranberry juice and lemon; and “Rose That Negroni,” with gin, lillet, aperol and rose.
We hear… that chef and restaurateur Djamel Omari’s Canto West Village – the popular Italian hotspot known on TikTok for its frozen espresso martinis with marscapone cheese and its bright red door – now has a 120-square-foot sidekick. Canto Café opened next door, at 117 West Houston St., in September. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., the new café is making a name for its trendy breakfast chicken Caesar salad with an egg wrap.
Lunch options include soups and house-made pastas. Other dishes include beef-chopped cheese with ground beef, green peppers, garlic aioli, tomatoes with chipotle sauce on ciabatta bread and a caponata pasta salad with fusilli, fresh mozzarella, olives, grape tomatoes, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini and pesto sauce. Grab and go or stay at one of three window seats. For those who can’t make it to the West Village, there’s also an outpost, Canto Upper West Side, at 2014 Broadway.
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