Two New York City Italian restaurants and one Mediterranean restaurant in Brooklyn earned their first-ever Michelin stars yesterday when the French guidebook publisher announced its winners for 2021. Other restaurants retained their hard-won hardware from a year earlier.
Yesterday, La Cucina Italiana checked in with Stefano Secchi, who told us his team was “incredibly humbled" about the first Michelin star for Rezdôra. He also committed to “focusing on the greater recovery of the industry that we all love,” a fitting sentiment at a time when it's bittersweet for a restaurant to receive recognition.
Don Angie's Lasagna
Joining Rezdôra with first-time stars are the always-buzzing Italian-American standout Don Angie (which we recently featured in 11 Family-Sized Lasagnas to Take Home in New York City), and Francie, the Mediterranean newcomer from chef Chris Cipollone—whose ravioli is pictured at top— and restaurateur John Winterman. The two shared their story shortly after opening in Francie: Planting Mediterranean Roots in Brooklyn.
All of the other Italian restaurants that retained their Michelin status received one star, although Blanca, the tasting-menu sister restaurant to Roberta’s, maintained its two-star status. (New York Times critic Pete Wells, in his 2015 review, wrote, “Beneath the body of Blanca’s menu is an Italian chassis.”) Faro, the excellent rustic Italian restaurant in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, and Babbo, which Mario Batali divested in following his scandals, didn’t regain the stars they lost in the 2020 rankings.
Del Posto, another Michelin-starred Italian restaurant, recently closed. Former chef Melissa J. Rodriguez and James Kent, a former chef de cuisine at Eleven Madison Park, and Del Posto's former general manager Jeff Katz, announced that they will retain the space and debut a new fine dining Italian restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a more casual pizza-focused spot in the sprawling Chelsea space, hopefully in fall.
The New York City Italian restaurants earning 2021 Michelin stars are:
- Ai Fiori
- Benno
- Carbone
- Marea
- ZZ’s Clam Bar