Key Highlights
- For nearly two decades, beginning in 1998, Babbo was one of the most coveted reservations in New York, reshaping how the city—and, arguably, the entire country—understood Italian cuisine and modern restaurant dining writ large.
- More to the point, it was just a marvellous place to be.
- It felt essential, intoxicating, urgent, the party-crowded bar area giving way to gracefully spacious dining rooms, the smell of rosemary and wine in the air, the honeyed lighting, the soigné service, the irreverent soundtrack of roaring classic rock.
- Babbo was the flagship restaurant of Mario Batali, and it became synonymous with his celebrity: charismatic, edgy, expansive, just on the edge of overwhelming.
- If you know any of this story, you know the rest of it.
