After closing the Central Park-adjacent San Domenico in June last year, Tony May and his daughter Marisa May relocated to the Flatiron district and opened a more modern version of their restaurant last week. Named SD26, the 14,000-square-foot eatery sits at the north end of Madison Square Park and features a contemporary interior by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli, a revised menu of contemporary Italian fare from executive chef Odette Fada, and a number of different areas for group entertaining.
Twice the size of the original, the new incarnation of San Domenico has 300 seats across three levels. The first American restaurant from Vignelli, SD26 sports a streamlined design accented with colorful pieces by textile artist Sheila Hicksthe. In the front of the space, the roomy bar and lounge area holds 70 seats and a 24-bottle enomatic machine that dispenses samples of the restaurant's 10,000-bottle wine list. Casual plates served in this area include rosetta with Italian meatball and eggplant as well as chickpea fritters with peperonata.
The hardwood floors of the bar and lounge lead directly to the main dining room, an open section of the restaurant with 138 seats, an exhibition kitchen, and a prosciutto and cheese station. Here Fada serves dishes like butternut squash gnocchi with chicken liver and fried sage, and small groups can take over one of the alcoves or the eight-seat chef's table. For more private gatherings, there's the mezzanine, which has room for 65 seated guests, and the 14-seat wine cellar on the lower level.
