One of Australia’s Hippest Restaurateurs Is Opening an Italian Place in Nolita

One of Australia’s most prominent restaurateurs has his eyes set on Nolita.

Jason Scott — who is the co-founder of the Swillhouse Group in Sydney and is behind some of the most popular and line-inducing restaurants and bars in the city — will open his first U.S. restaurant in NYC this November at 406 Broome St., between Lafayette Street and Cleveland Place, Gourmet Traveller reports. Gran Tivoli will be an all-day Italian restaurant that, like Scott’s Australian restaurants, will also go hard on cocktails.

For Gran Tivoli, Scott is teaming up with chef Robert Marchetti, who previously served as executive chef at Sydney’s trendy Icebergs Dining Room and Bar and consults for restaurants across QT Hotel group, a boutique hotel company in Australia.

According to Gourmet Traveller, Gran Tivoli’s dining room will seat 120 with an additional 140-seat bar in the basement. It will be open all day, from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. and will feature a simple Italian menu, free of fuss but also more modern than a red-sauce joint. “There’ll be pasta, there’ll be grills. It’s not going to look tricky or taste tricked-up,” Scott told Gourmet Traveller. Eater NY has reached out for more information.

The massive downstairs bar will be designed to look like a wine cellar with a cocktail program similar to that of Scott’s Baxter Inn, one of Sydney’s top bars. Hidden in a courtyard at the end of a dark alley, Baxter Inn is wildly popular in Sydney’s nightlife, attracting long lines and featuring a staggering mountain of booze bottles — mostly Scotch and whiskey — behind its dark bar. Update: Marchetti says that the downstairs, to be called Peppis Cellar, will be a wine cellar, but unlike Baxter Inn, it will be more of a restaurant with sit-down dinners.

Some of Scott’s Australian bars and restaurants have some American influence, as with the Southern-style honky tonk Shady Pines Saloon, which features live music performances and similarly draws large crowds, looking like it’s straight out of downtown Nashville. Scott’s French bistro Restaurant Hubert opened in Sydney in 2016 and quickly became a hotspot with a menu from star Australian chef Daniel Pepperell, who spent some time working in NYC at David Chang’s Momofuku Ssäm Bar.

Gran Tivoli is set to open in November.

• Hubert owner opening in Manhattan with former Icebergs chef [Gourmet Traveller]
• Chef Robert Marchetti brings his famed dining to Perth’s new QT hotel [Perth Now]