Shaking Up the Classics

This fall's crop of noodle emporiums, reinvented ristorantes, and perspective-altering vegan bakeries is remixing familiar concepts with new ideas.

- Anna Hezel

Owner Stephen Starr.chef Mark Ladner, and maitre d' Tizzy Beck have taken over at Babbo.

1. Babbo Is Back From Near Death

Mark Ladner is in the kitchen, and 100-layer lasagna is on the menu.

By Adam Reiner

WHEN A NEW RESTAURANT called Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca took over the historic Coach House in 1998, its owners—Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich—were worried they might alienate fans of the previous tenant. The restaurant has changed hands once again, and when it reopens in late September, its current management will face an entirely different challenge: reminding diners of everything they loved about Babbo while scrubbing away any memories of Batali’s downfall or the last few years of aimlessness.

For Stephen Starr, the new majority owner, keeping the name was a no-brainer. “It’s like Coca-Cola,” he says. “They fucked it up for a little while with New Coke, but then it came back.” When Starr first approached Mark Ladner—Batali’s onetime right-hand man and the former chef at Lupa and Del Posto—he was reluctant to sign on. “I had eaten there recently, and it certainly didn’t feel like it used to,” the chef says. “I was concerned about the history and all the other juju.” He wasn't fully convinced until news of the ownership change broke at the beginning of this year and the overwhelmingly positive reaction made it clear that this city is ready to love Babbo again. “Mark is one of the great chefs of New York—and he has a great palate,” says Bill Buford, whose 2006 book, Heat, tracked his time apprenticing in the Babbo kitchen.

Recapturing the early excitement will be a feat. “Most New Yorkers still thought of Italian food as meatballs and spaghetti, and here was a place that was really trying to do the food that you get in Italy,” says Ruth Reichl, the former