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Giorgio Armani, the king of Italian fashion, is now the king of Madison Avenue cuisine. The great designer, who just turned 90, has brought his signature blend of sophistication and accessibility to Manhattan’s most glamorous shopping boulevard — surprisingly, without a hint of snoots.
Elegant from floor to ceiling, Armani/Ristorante marks the final, definitive triumph over pandemic-era penny-inching.
Its proud embrace of fine materials and accessories, many from the designer’s Armani/Casa home line, isn’t the touristy brand of its old Midtown digs at Fifth Avenue and East 56th Street.
The new restaurant, at Madison and East 65th Street, is custom-tailored for the city’s uptown movers and fashionistas, many of whom live nearby.
It isn’t cheap, with prix-fixe options from $70 for two courses to $180 for seven courses. But they’re a giveaway compared with the schmattas with four-digit price tags in the adjacent boutique.
The old Midtown restaurant, which opened in 2009, was popular at the outset with fashion buyers and a few supermodels, but it lost juice over time as gawkers laid siege to Trump Tower across the street.
Knowing that the building would likely be sold, Armani teamed up with developer SL Green on an Armani-branded, 12-story luxury condo tower at 760 Madison Avenue with the new store and restaurant at its base.
The result is the Upper East Side’s classiest lunching-and-dining venue. The avenue has several fine Italian restaurants but none with this one’s built-in cachet or beauty. Its charm includes the warm welcome and friendly service it gives to everyone. I wish they had a dress code, though — men in snow jackets don’t belong in such a striking setting.
The squarish main dining room is an Art Deco-influenced jewel box in a cool palette of grey and pale green, warmed by white linen tablecloths and framed in ceiling-height beveled mirrors and windows onto the street. It’s the most stunning of the current crop of fashion restaurants, which also includes the new Le Cafe Louis Vuitton and the perennially packed Polo Bar.
The menu, by executive corporate chef Antonio D’Angelo and on-site executive chef Daniele Castellano, is strong throughout. It begins with the best bread service of any Italian restaurant in the city. The star is a round, warm loaf of sourdough that’s so satisfying, you might not need anything else. Thin breadsticks and cheese crisps further raise the bar.
Meat and fish are up to high New York standards. One not-to-miss dish is cuttlefish in paper-thin carpaccio form. With crunchy Taggiasche olives on top and ragu beneath, it resembles a kind of seascape.
But pasta and risotto are the menu’s heart and soul. Every variety I tried emerged perfectly al dente and attuned to the various tomato, saffron and shellfish sauces.
Spaghetti pomodoro is “Mr. Armani’s personal recipe,” a staff member said in a hushed tone, as if letting us in on a secret. The sauce takes 24 hours to prepare, we were informed.
It’s worth it. The spaghetti was embraced in vivid red sauce with a winning, sweet note that tasted almost like late summer.
Mushroom risotto, not yet listed on the menu but to be added soon, brought on moans of pleasure.
Because many well-heeled locals are off to warmer climes in frigid January, it can be relatively simple to snag a table, especially for dinner. But the easy bookings won’t last for long.
Go now before the uptowners return in their Armani-dressed, sun-tanned splendor.
