Neighborhood Spot: Chef Marco Fregonese’s Novitá Keeps Things Fresh in Gramercy

By Grace Cassidy The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old adage comes easily to mind when Marco Fregonese talks about Gramercy. When the Italian chef and restauranteur opened Novitá , his beloved trattoria on 102 E. 22nd Street in 1994, the Manhattan neighborhood was well known for the stately 19th-century townhouses and eponymous private park that evoked a bygone era of New York City. While such features are still evident today, of course, this rarified enclave just northeast of Union Square has experienced the same ebbs and flows of residential and commercial migration and reinvention that have washed through the rest of the city. Photo by Megan Bucknall via Unsplash. 19 Gramercy Park South. Actor John Barrymore lived here while working on Broadway. (Photo by Beyond My Ken - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikipedia) Gramercy Park (Photo by Beyond My Ken - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikipedia) “In many ways,” Fregonese said, “nothing is the same. The clientele always changes.” And yet, what makes Gramercy, well, Gramercy—the sense of being a world away from the traffic and tumult of the city all around it—remains the same. The same can be said of Novitá, which celebrates its 29th anniversary this month. “My vision for Novitá was to serve fresh, authentic, seasonal and regional Italian cooking, with an emphasis on Italian hospitality and appreciation for life,” Fregonese said. Marco Fregonese Not only has that mission endured, he added, “we’ve had the same kitchen crew since we started.” The longevity and comforting familiarity of Novitá—along with favorite dishes like the spaghetti alla bottarga and cheesecake—have been a consistent draw for Douglas Elliman agent Erin Boisson Aries . “It is very much a neighborhood spot,” said Aries, who discovered the restaurant before meeting Fregonese and his wife, Elizabeth, at an open house and striking up an enduring friendship. “They’ve had the staff for years and years, they know all the customers, everybody knows each other. The atmosphere is so inviting, which is exactly what you need at the end of a really intense work week.” Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. A graduate of a culinary academy in Italy’s Piedmont region, Fregonese trained in Michelin-starred kitchens in Milan before taking a sous chef position at DDL Foodshow, the Beverly Hills restaurant opened by film mogul Dino De Laurentiis. He then relocated to NYC, where he served as executive chef of the Upper East Side’s Mezzaluna and executive chef and partner of its sister restaurant, Mezzogiorno, before opening Novitá. True to the restaurant’s name, Novitá’s menu emphasizes innovation and novel takes on classic dishes like eggplant parmesan, cacio e pepe, and pan-fried veal. All of the pastas are made fresh. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. Photo by Rinze van Brug. “We try to change our dishes and innovate every three to five years,” Fregonese said. “We don’t look to trends for inspiration. We keep moving forward and innovating.” It’s an approach that manages to strike the same balance of old and new that epitomizes Gramercy. According to Elliman’s Aries, that unique characteristic of the neighborhood is perhaps more precious than ever. “There’s been so much development around Union Square and certainly in NoMad, where we just sold out The Ritz-Carlton penthouses ,” she said. “Gramercy has always been a special enclave, but with the expansion of all the neighborhoods around it, I think it has become that much more important and desirable. And Novitá stands as a beacon of amazing food and a place for people to come together and enjoy.”