Alex Stratta OUT at Deathwatched Newcomer Bigoli

Well, that was fast: just two and a half weeks after new West Village Italian restaurant Bigoli (the one with the neon lights and palm trees) was placed on Eater Deathwatch, the owners announce today that opening chef Alex Stratta has left for his home city of Vegas, and the menu and concept are now completely different. From the Eater inbox:

I wanted to let you know that Alex Stratta is no longer at Bigoli. He has left the building and is back in Sin City.

The team at Bigoli has gone back to the original concept that it was designed for 'pre-Stratta' involvement. We re-invented the menu and are focusing on the use of our 800 degree wood-burning oven that we put into the space. The menu now includes Italian tapas ($5-$9); wood-fired pizza ($12-$14); homemade pastas ($14-$19) and entrees ($18-$32). We took it back to doing approachable, simple, classic Italian cooking. Even when we did fancier 'Stratta dishes', people would still always order the most simple things that they enjoyed the most. If that's what the customers want, that's what we'll give them!

The guest feedback so far since our change on March 15th has been fantastic. We've brought in an entirely new kitchen team and we're excited about it.

We're also now open for lunch and Sunday brunch and just published a nice brunch menu.

We're even offering people a free wood-fired pizza (it's really free) if they want to come in and try us. They can just like us on FB (www.facebook.com/bigolirestaurant) and they will be instructed to fill out the form so we can instantly email them a free pizza voucher. (I hope you do it and enjoy a pizza.)

Here's a link to our new menu.

Thanks for putting us on your deathwatch. (I bet nobody ever thanked you for that.) It got our butts gear and forced us to make changes more quickly. We are a better restaurant today because of it.

Thanks!
The Team at Bigoli