Palestinian Hit Ayat to Open a Halal Italian Restaurant

The team behind Palestinian hits Ayat and Al Badawi is opening a new halal Italian restaurant called Fatta Mano. Owner Abdul Elenani tells Eater that his new Bay Ridge spot located at 8501 Third Avenue, at 85th Street, is set to open next Wednesday, October 5. The menu includes dishes like Bolognese pasta, fried calamari, chicken Milanese, and Neopolitan-style pizzas with toppings like burrata. truffle oil, or Brussels sprouts.

Since opening Ayat to much fanfare in fall of 2020 Elenani expanded with a larger sibling restaurant Al Badawi in Brooklyn Heights, as well as second outpost of Ayat that opened in Sunset Park this summer, now with a roof deck. When asked why he was turning his attention to Italian cooking, Elenani said via text, “people are craving halal Italian. Italian culture [is] very similar to the Middle Eastern culture.” Fatta Mano is located directly across from the original Ayat location.

Gramercy Park Hotel is having a liquidation sale

According to one TikTok video that’s already going viral, Gramercy Park Hotel, closed since the onslaught of the pandemic, is selling off all of its chairs, wall art, and other decorative items. In the meantime, the hotel’s crown jewel, Maialino is slated to reopen at the Redbury Hotel mid-October, as a smaller version of the original and renamed Maialino (vicino), which translates to “nearby.”

The M.T.A. does sandwich collabs now?

Perhaps in an attempt to lure back riders, the M.T.A. collaborated with New York institution Katz’s Delicatessen and Italian sandwich chain Alidoro on a different kind of sub than its typically known for. The new $14 sandwich is called the 1904 — named after the year of the first New York subway line debut — and is filled with “Katz’s pastrami, garlic confit cream, Calabrian pepper-Dijon slaw and aged provolone on a sourdough rye,” per the New York Times. It’s available starting this week through the end of October at all Alidoro locations in the city, with the exception of its Soho outpost.

Pastry chef Richard Capizzi has passed away

Thomas Keller took to Instagram yesterday, to share the news of Per Se and Bouchon Bakery alum, Richard Capizzi’s death. The restaurateur wrote that Capizzi, who most recently ran the pastry program at Lincoln Ristorante, was, to him, “a tremendous talent and tremendous human being.” The full message is posted online, including that a memorial fund has been set up by the Capizzi family for his “favorite” charity.