The Amalfi Coast has come to Midtown Manhattan. Casa Limone, by Michelin-starred chef Antonio Salvatore, has opened just steps from Rockefeller Center, offering Mediterranean breakfast, lunch, and dinner with indoor and outdoor seating.
The restaurant is the first in the United States from the Monte Carlo Hospitality Group, which has plans to expand in New York City, with a rehab of Atlantic Grill, a Monte Carlo patisserie, and a U.S. location of its flagship Monte Carlo restaurant, Rampoldi, in the works. Casa Limone is an impressive start.
"I’m humbled to open a new restaurant in the United States during these unprecedented times and this period of recovery,” says Salvatore, who received his first Michelin star in 2021 for La Table d’Antonio Salvatore, the chef’s table restaurant at Monte Carlo institution Rampoldi. “To be able to present versions of the dishes and ingredients I grew up eating to a world-class city like New York is a career highlight.”
Antonia Salvatore is the chef behind Casa Limone, a new Southern Italian restaurant in Manhattan. Photo: Evan Sung/courtesy of Casa Limone
Casa Limone is split between two levels with décor that draws inspiration from the streetscapes and outdoors of southern Italian villages. Guests are welcomed by a restored antique lemon-yellow Vespa and Pietra Lavica–tiled walls.
The ground floor contains a dining room with plush orange velvet chairs, a white marble bar with blue velvet barstools, a forest green banquette, and flower-covered lattice that peeks into the kitchen. As guests ascend to the second floor, they are transported to a pergola with climbing vines and hanging flowers that are accented by a stone wall and window shutters reminiscent of walking Italian streets.
To further enhance the dining experience, each table is accented by Murano water glasses, hand-painted plates from Caltagirone, Sicily, and Casa Limone’s custom extra virgin olive oil from Puglia. Some tables are hand painted and built in Pietra Lavica from Vietri, Campania.
The interiors, clearly designed to encourage a laid-back Southern Italian abiance, complement a menu crafted for dining at any time of day. Guests can come to Casa Limone for a light Italian breakfast, a leisurely lunch, aperitivo hour, or an evening out.
Casa Limone's Ruota di Carro pasta. Photo: Evan Sung/courtesy of Casa Limone
Menu highlights include Carpaccio di Tonno, pasta paired with rich sauces and presentations such as the Ruota di Carro, a Sicilian staple; Naples-influenced pizzas, and hearty dishes such as Timballo alla Trapanese, an oven-baked anelli pasta with eggplant, salami, mozzarella, peas and tomato sauce.
Infusing each meal with a touch of something sweet, hand-made cornetti are available in the morning and during the day and night. There’s also house-made gelato, cannolo Siciliano, tiramisù and Rum Baba — a signature of Naples — with Zacapa rum-soaked cake, vanilla cream and fresh berries, and other selections.