Via Carota Team’s Anticipated New West Village Italian Restaurant Opens This Week

The duo behind West Village standouts Via Carota, Buvette, and I Sodi are finally ready to reveal their newest project Bar Pisellino — a casual restaurant inspired by the standing coffee bars in Rome, where everything from a morning espresso to a lunch-time panini to an evening cocktail is on offer. It’s a highly anticipated all-day cafe from chef and restaurateurs Rita Sodi and Jody Williams, who recently won the 2019 James Beard award for best chef in New York City and are known for creating neighborhood favorites.

Bar Pisellino opens later this week, though no date is set yet. Plans call for coffee; craft cocktails; pastries like bombolonis, Italian doughnuts filled with filled with Nutella, cream, or jam; and varied white-bread sandwiches known as the tramezzino. It’s a 600-square-foot corner space at 52 Grove St., near Seventh Avenue, with more outdoor than indoor seating. As tradition has it, there’s plenty of standing room at the bar.

Cafe fare like an olive oil cake topped with sea salt and fennel seed will also be on tap, as well as savory dishes like a chicken Milanese panini and the tramezzino, filled with combinations such as prosciutto, peas, and mascarpone. Snacks like a mini chocolate-covered ice cream bar and cacio e pepe potato chips are also available.

The drinks — which will include the quintessential Aperol Spritz and other cocktails — are the work of Jon Mullen, formerly of Metta and Maison Premiere. He’ll also manage a “basement lab” within the restaurant; his cocktail creations are listed in hand-written booklets that’ll be published six times a year, according to Grub Street.

Beverage options include the fancily served Anisette Frappe, where a shot of espesso, club soda, and iced anisette with sugar come in separate glasses on a silver platter. Other drinks include a limey gin cocktail blended with pistachio orgeat and a pink-hued Spumoni cocktail.

The decor is meant to feel like a countryside Italian train station, with a white and black tiled floor fitting the part. The restaurant will slowly kick open this week, and if their other restaurants are any indication, the small corner spot will soon draw crowds.

Bar Pisellino will be open daily from 7 a.m. to midnight. Stay tuned for more details this week.

• Finally, Via Carota Team Opens Bar Pisellino in the West Village [Grub Street]