It’s hard to say whether Bar Bianchi, a new restaurant from Golden Age Hospitality—the same group behind The Nines and Le Dive—is better during the day or the night. In the afternoon, the café-style windows are thrown open as its bistro tables spill out onto the sidewalk, ready to hold gigantic Aperol spritzes in burgundy glasses. But after dark, its red and green neon sign casts a glow onto East Houston Street as negronis fly from its zinc and Formica bar, akin to a scene from Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City.
“Bar Bianchi is inspired by the piazza culture of Italy, and all these cafés and bars where you drink inside or sit outside,” Golden Age Hospitality group founder Jon Neidich tells Vogue. “The energy between the outside and the inside kind of flows in and out.”
Bar Bianchi. Photo: Liz ClaymanPhoto: Liz Clayman
Neidich, along with his creative director Andrea Johansson and longtime collaborator Sam Buffa, was inspired by classic Milanese haunts like Bar Luce (which is owned by Prada), Bar Jamaica, and Bar Basso—“amazing places that only really exist in Europe, where you have this old world place that’s stayed relevant,” he says.
Indeed, hung on the walls are vintage Italian posters and the floor is composed of alternating rust, black, and white tiles; walls are painted with a faint green Venetian plaster. It feels all very ’20s and ’30s, until you get to the lights—space-age style scones and a 1960s hanging fixture serve as Italian modernist accents, an homage to Milan’s most famous design movement.
Much of the menu, overseen by chef Nicole Gajadhar, is focused on the antipasti that are the staple of aperitivo culture: think crisp fried zucchini, burrata with roasted peppers, prosciutto and melon, and fried stuffed olives. But a full dinner awaits if you wish, with dishes like a veal Milanese for two and rigatoni with a pink sauce and rigatoni with sausage, peas, and pink sauce. (Neidich named it “Rigatoni di Nash,” as it is the favorite pasta of his young son, Nash.)