Eataly’s Manzo Is Closing for a Revamp on Sunday

The current iteration of Manzo — the white-tablecloth restaurant within Eataly (200 Fifth Ave.) in the Flatiron —will close on Sunday for a revamp and will debut in late March with an overhauled design, a butchering room, a new menu, and a cocktail list that highlights vermouth.

Beef — manzo in Italian — will remain a focus of the restaurant from Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. What’s new is daily-operating butcher room that will provide a behind-the-scenes experience for diners. “This is a prime example of what Eataly is all about – transparency and education,” says a spokesperson. The butcher counter will remain open, along with other restaurants within Eataly, including La Pizza & La Pasta, Le Verdure, Il Pesce, Piazza San Marco, and Baita on the roof.

Adam Hill is the chef de cuisine for Manzo, who works with Fitz Tallon, who has been at Eataly since it opened in 2010 and head chef since 2012. Between now and the debut, Manzo will pop-up at La Scuola Grande — the Sunday classes and events at Eataly between noon and 7 p.m. — featuring producers and menu items that may (or may not) be on the new menu.

Inspired by the original Eataly in Torino — which opened in an old vermouth factory in 2007 —the beverage program will highlight an expansive selection of vermouth and will include several vermouth-forward cocktails designed by Davide Pinto.

When Manzo opened as part of Eataly in 2010, the restaurant got rave reviews from the Times’ Sam Sifton:

Only one restaurant, Manzo, takes reservations. In keeping with its name, which means beef in Italian, Manzo serves a lot of meat. The chef is Michael Toscano, who was at Babbo, and the menu has a lot of that restaurant’s macher flare: ridiculously crisp and pillowy sweetbreads; agnolotti to shame even the excellent version available for $6 less at La Pasta; an incredible, luscious veal chop smoked in hay, with gigante beans and speck; a beautiful rib-eye for two, with a tiny cup of beef broth as chaser, and cloudlike pommes soufflées just because.

Though he wasn’t shy about the problems with the space:

But Manzo is at all hours in the center of a supermarket, across from the fishmonger and right outside the classroom where Ms. Bastianich teaches classes in Italian cooking. One table is pressed up against the door that leads into that room. Manzo is a feng shui nightmare. You might go once.

A year after opening, Manzo raised prices on its tasting menu, bumping five courses for $65 to seven courses for $90, the only one available aside from a la carte ordering.

Stay tuned for Manzo updates as we get them.