About
OPENED IN JUNE 1998, BABBO RISTORANTE E ENOTECA IS AN EXUBERANT CELEBRATION OF THE BEST OF ITALIAN FOOD, WINE, AND LIFESTYLE.
Hailed with a glowing 3-star review by Ruth Reichl of the New York Times shortly after its opening, Babbo has since been met with much critical acclaim. The menu incorporates the best and freshest seasonal produce, Italian cheeses, meat, game, and seafood, accented with fine Italian olive oils, traditional Aceto balsamico, and many unusual ingredients that will surprise and delight.
The wine list represents one of the most extensive and intelligent collections in the city, and indeed the country is presided over by Joe Bastianich and served by our expert wine and service teams.
Babbo seats up to 90 diners in its split-level dining room and has a lively bar area where patrons may enjoy a quartino (quarter-liter) of wine, or choose to have a full meal. Babbo is located steps from Washington Square Park, in the center of romantic and colorful Greenwich Village.
OUR VISION
We opened Babbo in an effort to emulate the best of the great Italian tradition of hospitality and quality at the table and in the glass. The philosophy is as easy as it is straightforward– use the best local ingredients as simply as possible and serve them with flourish and joy. As a Tuscan cook in Chianti, as Neapolitan cooks on the Amalfi coast, as a Sicilian cook in Pantelleria, at Babbo we cook as an Italian might in the Mid-Atlantic/Hudson Valley region.
At Babbo, you will rarely find your favorite regional classics as you have eaten them in osterie, trattorie, and ristorante throughout Italy. What you will find is delicious simple food that hopefully tastes as good as you remember from your last visit to Italy because we strive in the Italian fashion to shorten the time and distance any ingredient spends from the soil, or the water, or the air, to the plate. We import pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and Prosciutto San Daniele because they are so distinct and virtually indispensable to the creation of a great Italian meal. We fervently believe in the inherent quality, freshness, and greatness of our region's ingredients purchased from local, predominantly organic, farmers and friends, many of them from forgotten or heirloom varietals. Our desserts are like none you have ever eaten in Italy, yet they feel and taste totally Italian. Our wine list is one hundred percent Italian in celebration of the quality and diversity of Italian grape varietals and vinification.
Like most Italian restaurateurs, we love where we live and live to celebrate both our location and our ingredients, from the land, air, and sea. Babbo is our interpretation of the best we have come to know in the Italian culture of family where it is best and most often celebrated, at the dinner table.
Benvenuti,