Once upon a time—in the late 90s and early aughts—Babbo was the toughest table to book in New York City. Then came the lawsuits. In the aftermath, highly publicized sexual harassment accusations sent chef Mario Batali into exile in late 2017, and in 2021, resulted in a $600,000 payout from him and former business partner Joe Bastianich to ex- employees. Meanwhile, Babbo quietly persevered, albeit a much diminished version of its once-glorious self.
The fans who swore off the restaurant because of its connections to Batali breathed a sigh of relief earlier this year when the hit-making restaurateur Stephen Starr announced he’d taken a majority stake in the iconic West Village restaurant and its more casual sibling Lupa Osteria Romana. Longtime fans and food cognoscenti also cheered his move to hire Mark Ladner, who helped open Babbo before becoming the chef at Lupa—and then another Batali enterprise, the now shuttered Del Posto—to run the kitchen.
Dining and Cooking