Hospitality Design - October 2016 - 108

special feature

chefs

Photo by NOAH FECKS

Photo by DUSTIN AKSLAND

Bar Primi, designed by Taavo Somer

ANDREW
CARMELLINI
NoHo Hospitality Group
Restaurants

Locanda Verde, the Dutch, Joe's Pub, the
Library at the Public, Lafayette, Bar Primi, Little
Park, and Evening Bar, New York; rooftop bar
Westlight, Mister Dips, and soon-to-open Leuca,
Brooklyn, New York; the Dutch Miami; and set
for 2018: venues in a Detroit hotel

On becoming a chef

Growing up in south Cleveland in the 1970s
and '80s, it wasn't something you heard talked
about. I knew I liked to eat. I loved to cook with
my mom. I really wanted to go to music school
and got accepted to Berklee College of Music [in
Boston]. I also started working in restaurants
when I was in high school, so I got the bug a
little bit. It was a decision between doing the
music thing or the cooking thing.

On cooking for former Governor of
New York Mario Cuomo

I just got to school at the [Culinary Institute
of America in New York], and after three
weeks I answered a random ad at school that
said 'private chef, weekends in Albany.' They
interviewed me over the phone, then they [asked
me to] show up at this address, but I still didn't
know who the family was. I got in my rusted

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October 2016 hospitalitydesign.com

1973 Maverick and drove up to Albany, and I was
like, 'Oh, that family.'

On working for industry greats (after
and in between stints in France
and Italy) like Gray Kunz and Daniel
Boulud

It was a different culinary time in New York-
the great uptown restaurants were the most
important; there weren't many downtown
restaurants. If you were a serious chef, you were
working for a restaurant that had a 'Le' in front of
the name. It made me a better chef: I showed up
early, stayed late, tried to learn as much as I could.

On opening Locanda Verde and
the Dutch, after helping to launch
Michelin-starred Avoce

An old customer of mine, Robert De Niro, was
opening a hotel [the Greenwich] in Tribeca, and
that's how [Italian restaurant] Locanda Verde in
2009 came about. I was already working out the
lease on [roots-inspired American restaurant and
oyster bar] the Dutch in SoHo. It was an intense
time, opening two businesses a year apart but I
have two great partners, Luke Ostrom and Josh
Pickard. We formed NoHo Hospitality, and here
we are.

On heading to Brooklyn's
Williamsburg neighborhood, with
venues in the newly opened William
Vale hotel

We were involved in a development project down
the street [that fell through]. The William Vale

was going up and we saw that the building was
going to be significant. About a year into the
project the developers parted ways with their
original [restaurant] partner, and we were
introduced. For a hotel restaurant to be vibrant,
you need local people there hanging out and
you need to take care of the people at the hotel,
and sometimes it's hard to achieve that.

On design, with partners like Meyer
Davis, Rockwell Group, Roman and
Williams, and Gachot Studios

I am probably overly involved. We try to have
a music-set quality to every place. I wanted
some glamour at Westlight. It could have
been easy and cliché to do something in
Brooklyn that had brick walls and reclaimed
furniture. Rooftop bars are getting kind of
sloppy, and we wanted to do a more elevated
rooftop experience that is also a lot of fun.
The Dutch was a great American restaurant,
and I wanted to tell that story in a particular
way with different rooms, and Roman and
Williams understood it. For Lafayette, I always
wanted to do a big, bold, grand café, and that
space just felt like that. Little Park is a small
restaurant and I wanted to do something
vegetable focused. So New York real estate
drives [the restaurant] a lot, but it's also what
we are feeling. Others have been quick redos
of spaces on a budget that didn't work in
hotels-and how do you make that feel fresh.

On restaurant design pet peeves

Understanding that a restaurant is not
residential. The furnishings take a beating; you
can value engineer a project without sacrificing
the look and the texture if you take the time to
do it.
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