The Flatiron Building is getting a new restaurant from the chefs behind Via Carota

Chefs Jody Williams and Rita Sodi in front of the Flatiron Building. Photo credit: Alex Stein

The celebrated chefs behind some of New York City’s most acclaimed restaurants are opening a new spot in one of the city’s most iconic buildings. James Beard Award-winning duo Rita Sodi and Jody Williams will open a location of their Bar Pisellino at the base of the landmarked Flatiron Building, which is currently being converted from offices into condominiums. The new restaurant marks the first restaurant outside of the West Village for Sodi and Williams, who are behind beloved downtown restaurants Via Carota, I Sodi, Buvette, and The Commerce Inn.

Bar Pisellino, which opened on Grove Street and Seventh Avenue in 2019, is an all-day Italian cafe offering espresso, cocktails, and light bites.

Taking up the base of the Flatiron Building, the new outpost will have a “larger, more high-profile setting,” according to a spokesperson for the building. The restaurant, featuring “soaring ceilings and restored architectural arches,” will offer outdoor seating and direct access from Fifth Avenue and Broadway.

Bar Pisellino Flatiron is expected to open in 2027, with construction beginning this summer.

“The Flatiron Building’s legacy is such an iconic part of New York, and we are thrilled to be part of it,” Sodi and Williams said in a statement. “We cannot wait to bring that spirit to Bar Pisellino.”

In another impressive move, further uptown, the chefs were selected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to reimagine its restaurant program. The museum announced last fall that Sodi and Williams will boost existing offerings and develop new dining concepts, starting in 2027 at the Met’s Fifth Avenue location and later, at the Trie Cafe at the Met Cloisters.

The Flatiron Restaurant and Cafe’s menu in 1906, courtesy of the Buttolph Collection, Rare Books Division, courtesy of The New York Public Library’s Digital Collections

While it will be the first time the Flatiron Building will have apartments, the Beaux-Arts building did have a restaurant when it opened in 1902. The Flat Iron Restaurant and Cafe occupied the basement of the building, with reportedly enough space to serve 1,500 guests.

On the early 1900s menu? Oysters, clams, soups, and roasts. Later on, the restaurant/jazz club Taverne Louis opened, introducing ragtime to New Yorkers.

The Brodsky Organization and the Sorgente Group, with SLCE Architects, are leading the conversion of the former office building into 37 condominiums. More than 10 units have entered contract over the last year, including a sprawling five-bedroom apartment listed for $58.5 million.

AD100 designer William Sofield’s Studio Sofield is designing all residences, as well as the amenity spaces. And for the first time, the Flatiron Building will be illuminated at night when it reopens with a new LED lighting scheme from L’Observatoire International.

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