Torrisi Team Enters Phase Two of World Domination Plan

Today, the Torrisi team reveals a lot of juicy details on the many upcoming projects for their Major Food Group, including the restaurant going into Sean MacPherson's upcoming project The Ludlow, the restaurant in the new Renzo Piano-designed building near the High Line, and a brand project with Roberta's vet and bagel-expert Melissa Weller.

The restaurant Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick have planned for The Ludlow will be a French bistro called Dirty French, their first real departure from Italian cooking. On the menu are things like lamb carpaccio with apricots and goat cheese, and roast chicken served with crepes. That restaurant is slated to open in early summer, with the High Line project on its tails, and still more things brewing down the road.

The restaurant at the foot of the High Line, which is still unnamed, will serve, as Jeff Gordinier puts it, the "light, healthful cuisine of the Italian and American coasts." A glimpse at the menu from the Times shows dishes like spaghetti with blue crab.

Meanwhile, the team is currently on the hunt for a space downtown that would house what Jeff Zalaznick calls "our version of Barney Greengrass." They've teamed up with Per Se and Roberta's vet Melissa Weller, who most recently has been selling bagels to much acclaim under the name East River Bagels at Smorgasburg. That restaurant and bakery would serve all the foods of a classic appetizing store, including bagels, smoked fish, blintzes, bear claws, and marble rye.

And last but not least, in addition to the locations already planned for the Upper West Side, Williamsburg, and Battery Park City, there is apparently yet another Parm going in "across from Barclays Center." All in all, Zalaznick tells Gordinier, it "is an explosive year" for Major Food Group.
· The Red Sauce Juggernaut [NYT]
· All Coverage of Torrisi [~ENY~]