Yards to go

Locanda Verde (Hudson Yards)

RESTAURANTS • First Person

Over the course of several recent winter afternoons, FOUND visited Hudson Yards to conduct a two-point spot check on the current state of lunch. Here, part one.

My first stop was with a colleague at Locanda Verde, new to the retail complex as of November, located directly across from the subway entrance. It’s the second outpost of the restaurant, the first having opened as a taverna by chef Andrew Carmellini, Luke Ostrom, and Josh Pickard 15 years ago in Tribeca. Now matured into more of a ristorante, the original Locanda still holds steady as a reliably excellent source of celeb-spotting and rustically refined pan-Italian and Italian-American cuisine. Officially, the new Locanda Verde in the Hudson Yards neighborhood is an osteria, though the micro-distinctions between semi-rustic Italian restaurant categories can begin to feel arbitrary when dining out in two of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods.

I seriously doubt there’s another osteria, in Italy or elsewhere, whose design matches the warm-but-polished, high-ceilinged elegance of the Locanda Verde Hudson Yards dining room. It’s the work of Roman and Williams, the firm responsible for Le Mercerie, Le Coucou, and Upland, along with previous Carmellini projects The Dutch and Lafayette.

Fans of the Tribeca location of Locanda Verde will recognize signature dishes — juicy lamb meatball sliders, tangy and fluffy sheep’s milk ricotta, liberally drizzled with green olive oil and served with a stack of toast, and meat-stuffed ravioli modeled on Carmellini’s grandmother’s recipe. At Hudson Yards, Carmellini et al have added both crudi (slices of bigeye tuna served with a dab of caperberry-enlivened tonnato sauce, for example) and at dinner, some large-format entrées (whole chicken, dry-aged Florentine-style steak).

My lunch order began with a head of radicchio spatchcocked into the shape of a peony for maximum eye appeal, with a sweet, date-intensive vinaigrette. The equally sweet tortelli di zucci — tender packets of butternut squash with a fruity mostarda condiment — were perfect, but made me wish I’d made a more strategically savory-acidic order. My wiser lunch date started with the alliteratively constructed insalata d’Andrea (a fine tangle of arugula, apple, almond, and asiago), followed by the jet-black chitarra nero pasta, tossed with a well-balanced mixture of buttery crab, earthy bottarga, and chilis.

The service was crisp and friendly, the crowd a nice mixture of business lunchers and people in no hurry to get anywhere. I look forward to going back for dinner, to linger over a lamb shank and a pistachio crespelle. –Laurie Woolever

→ Locanda Verde (Hudson Yards) • 50 Hudson Yards • Mon-Thur 1130a-3p & 5p-10p, Fri 1130a-3p & 5p-11p, Sat 5-11p, Sun 5-10p • Reserve.

→ Shop: Care and Feeding: A Memoir • Today is publication day for FOUND contributor Laurie Woolever’s memoir of a 25-year career in food and media, laced through with addiction and recovery, and bookended by two giants of the industry • $26.09 at Amazon.