A Dirty Martini and “aglio, olio e pepperoncino” may not seem to have much in common. Federico Pavan and Alberto Marcolongo would argue otherwise. Both depend on familiarity: you should know what you are drinking or eating from the first sip or bite. The technique that got it there can stay out of sight. That idea underpins Forget About It, opening toward the end of the year at 168 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village.
Forget About It’s Approach to Food and Cocktails
Its four founders call it a “bar-led restaurant,” a place where the kitchen and bar operate on equal terms and the usual boundary between drinking and dining is deliberately blurred. “We’re creating two things that become one,” Pavan says. “Neither one takes precedence.” Pavan, a mixologist, and Marcolongo, a chef, have reduced their approach to a line: “Simple is not easy, but simple is better.” Familiar ingredients are pushed technically without becoming unrecognizable in the process. “You can never hide behind a simple ingredient,” Pavan says. “People know whether a dish or a drink is good because they know the ingredient.” Marcolongo takes much the same position in the kitchen. “We’re going to put our egos aside,” he says, “so the guest immediately recognizes what they’re eating or drinking, and only then discovers the work that went into transforming it.”
The Four Partners Behind Forget About Hospitality
The restaurant is the first project from Forget About Hospitality, founded by four Italian partners whose backgrounds cover different sides of the business. Pavan, Director of Beverages and Operations, spent nearly 14 years working alongside Salvatore Calabrese and built his career in bars and hotels. Marcolongo comes from fine dining and worked with Oldani and Ducasse. Paolo Testa, Vice President & Creative Director, handles marketing, communications and brand identity; Giacomo Bertoldi, the group’s president, oversees much of the financial, contractual and management side. “We tried to build a bulletproof team,” Testa says, “where the division of expertise allows the kitchen, bar, communications and business to develop within the same vision.”
Marcolongo’s Cuisine and Pavan’s Forget About (Dirty) Martini
In Marcolongo’s kitchen, that vision can be found in the “Midnight Pasta”. It begins with aglio, olio e peperoncino, “probably the simplest pasta you can make in Italy,” then uses contemporary techniques to alter its form while preserving the flavor everyone expects. Aperitivo will include “Scarpetta”: focaccia served with seasonal sauces. The food is designed for sharing and can be ordered throughout the restaurant rather than being confined to a conventional dining- room sequence.
Pavan is working from the same premise behind the bar. “Stop thinking like a bartender,” one of his recurring maxims, will become part of the identity of Forget About It. The drinks should be easy to understand; the work required to make them that way can be considerably more involved. The “Forget About (Dirty) Martini” makes the point. Its salinity comes from the brine of the Peruvian Botija olive, prized here for its savory, floral character. A frozen glass is misted with fino sherry, while the spirits are held at minus 21 degrees Celsius, a technique Pavan carries with him from the Calabrese school that gives the liquid an almost oily texture.
The final steps happen in front of the guest. “Interaction with the guest is very important,” Pavan says. “You always have to make them feel at the center of your attention.” There is some lineage in the drink, too. Pavan brings together techniques associated with three bartenders who have shaped his understanding of the Martini: Salvatore Calabrese, Agostino Perrone and Alessandro Palazzi. The name, “Forget About (Dirty) Martini”, plays directly into the larger idea. “Forget everything you’ve tried before and what you think about the Martini,” he says. “Now come and try ours and see what happens.”
Between Italy and New York
Forget About It treats its Italian identity with a similar mix of recognition and subversion. The name plays on an expression associated with Italian-American slang; the logo adopts the ubiquitous pinched-fingers gesture. Testa is keenly aware of how easily such references can tip into caricature. “We don’t want to be the immigrants who come to New York and tell everyone how people eat and drink in Italy,” he says. Instead, the cliché is exaggerated and turned back on itself. The typography, graphics and interiors borrow from Italian visual culture of the 1970s and ’80s. What began with “Milano da bere” as an early reference has developed into a room of backlit green glass block, brushed steel, amber glass block, terrazzo and deep greens and oranges.
From a Friendship in London to a Business Venture
For Pavan and Marcolongo, there is another story running underneath the opening. The two come from the same small town, though their friendship really took hold in London, when Marcolongo gave Pavan a place to stay after he arrived. Years later, they are opening a restaurant together in New York. “It’s the dream of everyone who does this job: to finally launch something of your own,” Pavan says. “And getting to do it with your best friend is something not everyone gets.” Forget About It is built around four partners, four different disciplines and a principle that Pavan and Marcolongo keep returning to: leave the complexity with the people doing the work and give the simplicity to the guest. By December, they will find out what New York makes of it.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Rendering by Atelierzero, courtesy Forget About Hospitality
