NAME OF CONCEPT – SD 26 -- www.sd26ny.com
LOCATION OF CONCEPT – Manhattan, NY
THEME OF CONCEPT – Nouveau fine dining Italian. Modern American interpretation of Italian/Mediterrean food, wine and lifestyle. Successor to Tony May’s original dining landmark: San Domenico on Manhattan’s Central Park South. SD 26 has three cooking areas: a display facility that opens onto the main dining room with views from tables on the mezzanine level; a bar cooking line that supports the bar and wine lounge; a cellar-level banquet cooking/restaurant prep and bakery area. Three-level 14,000-square-foot F&B areas are decorated with Italian black oak flooring, gold-leaf ceilings, Pompeian red walls and a rainbow of fiber-optic installations by the artist Sheila Hicks. The chef running the large whitewashed kitchen at SD 26 (the salumeria station alone is the size of a small bus) is Odette Fada, whose cooking won her a loyal following at the old San Domenico
NEW CONSTRUCTION – Renovation, Commercial building, 19 East 26th Street
END OF RENOVATION/NEW CONSTRUCTION – August 2009
OPENING DATE OF PROJECT – September 2009
PROJECT OWNER/OPERATOR – Toy and Marisa May
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS – Interior Design, Vignelli Associates; Architect, Barteluce and Associates; Construction, Builder’s Group; Equipment Dealer, E. Friedman Associates
COST OF PROJECT – $7,000,000 (est.)
FOH SQUARE FOOTAGE/FACILITIES – SD 26 has a total of 300 seats, twice as many as there were at the original San Domenico. In the soaring 140-seat fine-dining area, with an open kitchen to the west, average dinner checks are e $75, including wine. To the east, a salumeria offers diners assorted take-home prosciuttos and artisanal cheeses. In the 70-seat SD 26 lounge, staff present $6 to $12.50 small plates including a John Dory confit with chickpeas and clams, and smoked lobster with porcini and blood-orange segments. At lunch, in both the lounge and the dining room, there is a $32.50 prix fixe menu, the Quadrifoglio, or four-leaf clover: Four dishes are served together in one course, a balanced meal created in consultation with nutritionists in Milan. Finally, the connoisseur’s wine room, with abundant old-vintage Italian wines, will inhabit a 10,000-bottle cellar, also features “enomatic” wine dispensers and SD 26 smart cards that encourage diners to be their own sommeliers.
KEY EQUIPMENT – Installed in SD 26’s main kitchen are Electrolux’s air-o-chill Blast Chiller, an S90 Island Cooking Suite, an air-o-steam Combi Oven and an air-o-convect Convection Oven. Installed on the cellar level is another S90 Cooking Suite.
KEY PERSONNEL – Executive chef, Odette Fada and chef de cuisine Matteo Bergamini
TRANSACTION VOLUME/COVERS – N/A
AVERAGE CHECK – $50 (and above)
SIGNATURE MENU ITEMS – SD 26’s new menu is organized according to food products, including “Salumeria,” “Vegetables and Salads,” and “Meat, Poultry and Game,” instead of the usual progression from appetizers to entrées. Notable selections are glistening ribbons of lardo served on wedges of fresh bread (from the excellent Salumeria section), and a classic Sicilian caponata folded with pine nuts and segments of melting Japanese eggplant. Panzanella is a rough country dish, but here it’s transformed into a savory pastry, made with a round of finely mashed bread soaked in the juice of fresh tomatoes, topped with strips of anchovies. Veal sweetbreads are served with coffee essence, olive oil and baby turnips, while egg-yolk-filled raviolo are prepared with truffled butter. Desserts include pannacotta, tiramisu and a world-class collection of cheeses.
