The restaurateurs behind the East Village’s Beetle House are opening a new high-end Italian restaurant and cocktail bar Bread and Stone in about six weeks, cofounder Zach Neil confirms.
It will be housed in the same building as one of their most popular pop-up concepts, Beetle House, which has since become a permanent staple in the East Village. It will use 25,000-year-old stones in their oven to cook homemade gourmet breads and pizza pies. It will sell its bread from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then transition into a fine dining establishment, serving Neapolitan-style pizza and rustic Northern Italian pasta cooked by sixth-generation Sicilian pizzaiolo Guiseppe Ronaldi. An accordion player will also contribute to its authentic Italian ambiance.
“We are looking forward to making the food we grew up with and bringing something else to the neighborhood that’s a more calm sit-down,” its cofounder Tim O’Grady tells What Now New York.
The team is also debuting a new tequila bar and their Blockbuster Bar pop-up concept soon, as previously reported by What Now New York.
Bread and Stone’s menu is slated to include homemade Neapolitan-style pizzas such as a parmesan truffle pie and classic margherita, vegan pies such as a puttanesca pie and pastas such as penne alla vodka and gnocchi with pesto. Its homemade artisan bread offerings will include but are not limited to butter baguettes and New York-style rye. It will also offer seasonal breads like cornbread.
Neil and O’Grady met each other while working in the music industry over twenty years ago. During that time they also met their other business partner Jeannie Bocchicchio who assists with the brand’s mixology matters.
O’Grady was born in Milwaukee but grew up outside of Philadelphia. He opened his first restaurant Jive Jerky with his family in Moscow, Pennsylvania, in 2013, which also has a spinoff called The Jive that opened a year later.
The team is known for their 90s and 00s themed pop-ups including the Blockbuster Bar, the Home Alone-themed Happy Holidays Ya Filthy Animals and the Star Wars-themed The Dark Side. They also have permanent establishments in the East Village including Beetle House, which started as a pop-up nearly a decade ago, and the coffee house Steamy Hallows.
