How Forlini’s Survives the Instagram Horde

As rats scampered among trash cans by moonlight in Chinatown, a procession of tall and very good looking people started entering an old Italian restaurant on Baxter Street called Forlini’s. They walked past its grand wooden doors and moved right through the stuffy chandelier-lit dining room, where middle-aged customers looked up from their veal marsala and clams casino to consider the stylish spectacle.

One of the first arrivals was a 20-year-old model/skateboarder with a million followers on Instagram. He flipped his dreadlocks to the side and strode through the place like it was a fashion runway. A thin woman wearing military boots and hoop earrings appeared next and remarked to friend: “I’ve never been, but I keep hearing about it. This is my first time. I’m so excited to be here.” Outside, a fashion designer wearing dark sunglasses and smoking a cigarette shrieked when his date arrived, and he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

The old regulars paid their bills and left, but Forlini’s kept getting busier. The dominant attire switched from suits and ties to haute streetwear: Opening Ceremony tote bags, jackets from Balenciaga, at least one pair of Yeezys. The beautiful people were all heading to a birthday in the rear dining room, which soon transformed into a dark lounge filled with stylists, actors, social-media influencers, magazine editors, designers, bloggers and people who didn’t appear to have jobs the next day at all. Uniformed waiters frantically served calamari, stuffed artichokes and chicken Milanese. In one booth, a Victoria’s Secret model filmed her friends gleefully tossing rose petals into the air before posting the video to Instagram.

As midnight approached, and the delights of being young and beautiful and partying in an old red sauce restaurant were possibly exhausted, everyone started heading to an after party at a bar on the Lower East Side called the Flower Shop. Leading the exodus was Jordan Barrett, a 21-year-old Australian surfer who is currently one of the most in-demand male models in the world.

“I’ve never heard of this restaurant before,” Mr. Barrett said. He had been there for the celebration at hand — the birthday party of a social-media influencer and creative consultant. “I am only here for Jenné Lombardo. This restaurant only matters because of Jenné Lombardo. This restaurant did not even exist before tonight.” He stepped into an SUV with his crew and disappeared into the night.

Forlini’s has actually existed since 1956. A holdout from when Little Italy still extended into what would become Chinatown, the restaurant is a time capsule of old New York, and the Forlini family still runs it. But Forlini’s is also distinguished for its unique clientele: located down the street from the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building, it has been a canteen of choice for the courthouse crowd for decades, feeding the judges, lawyers, reporters, secretaries, court officers and bail bondsmen who work in the neighborhood.

When lunch breaks at 1 p.m., Forlini’s becomes a neutral site, where prosecutors and defense attorneys enjoy chicken piccata together. Judges hold court from booths bearing plaques etched with their names. (Actual inscription: “Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder. Founded First Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau in U.S. 25 Years Patron.”) Legal teams await verdicts before celebrating victories with Champagne or slinking off to the bar to wash off defeats. Robert M. Morgenthau, the former Manhattan district attorney, used to eat at Forlini’s twice a week, and is still referred to by the staff simply as “the Boss.”

Now 99, Mr. Morgenthau visits Forlini’s less often, but he remembers the restaurant fondly. “Forlini’s was a friendly and nonpolitical atmosphere,” he said over the phone. “You could see people who were adversaries in court but without any hostility, and that’s why we liked it.” He added: “My favorite dish was linguine with white clam sauce. Because it was the whole clam in the shell. Which was particularly good.”

Now, on any given night, mixed among the stalwarts in suits and ties, you’ll find customers like Pablo Douzoglou, 34, who works for an indie music label. Mr. Douzoglou took out his phone to show the Slack channel (#forlinis) he and his colleagues maintain devoted to the restaurant. A typical message in the chat read simply: “been thinking about forlinis.”

The locust descent of the young and beautiful, the skateboarders and the models, upon this Old World restaurant is also part of a grand and subversive New York tradition. In a city whose famed grit is being sanded away, a certain young romantic chases authenticity. And this purity tends to be found in holdouts like Forlini’s.

The court crowd regulars are dimly aware of the newcomers. Cynthia Sittnick, 64, a former assistant district attorney, was unwinding recently at Forlini’s. She tucked into her clams oreganata and considered the new breed as an anthropological curiosity. “So now I’m hearing that the hipsters are coming to Forlini’s,” she said. “I guess I get it. Forlini’s is so unhip it’s now become hip to them.” She cast a glance at the rustic landscapes hanging on walls. “Look, I love Forlini’s, but if someone proposed to me here, I’d probably kill them.”

Over at the bar, Kevin Magee, a 55-year-old police detective, nursed a beer. “They come in at night,” he said. “That’s when you see them. You’ll have old people talking with the young hipsters from the neighborhood. Swedish models dancing with their boyfriends. I heard one tell her friend they’re in a ‘hidden gem.’”

At a table nearby, Jonathan Rosenberg, 32, a criminal defense lawyer, forked into some lasagna. “If you want to do business, you go to Forlini’s,” he said. “If you want to avoid work, you go to Forlini’s. And if you want to show off to your hipster friends, now you also go to Forlini’s.” He continued with an academic air: “I think hipsters are desperate for places no one knows about but that everyone talks about. You’re not supposed to be at Forlini’s as a millennial, so I think that’s what makes it cool for them. It becomes counterculture.”

Interest in Forlini’s undeniably accelerated last May after Vogue magazine hosted its lavish pre-Met Gala party there. Alexa Chung, Kate Bosworth and Hailey Baldwin attended, a D.J. played until morning, and the event had its own hashtag: “#spaghettiandMetballs.”

The Forlini’s selfie became a coveted social media accomplishment shortly after the spectacle. Recently, a Vogue writer named Brooke Bobb happened to be dining at Forlini’s, and she had some thoughts on the phenomenon. “It’s becoming a spot,” said Ms. Bobb, 31. “One of those places that has become Instagrammable. It’s not really about the food. It’s about looking cool on the couches. Getting a million likes from sitting in the booths and posing like models. That’s just what happens when something goes viral now.”

In the background of these selfies with people posing like models are paintings of the Northern Italian countryside that depict Groppallo, the mountain village that Joseph Forlini emigrated from in 1938. He opened a restaurant in Little Italy in 1943, and over a decade later his sons started Forlini’s at 93 Baxter Street. Today, third generation cousins, Joe and Derek Forlini, run the restaurant. “My father always used to say, ‘We came from Italy with nothing, and now judges know me by name,’” said Derek, 60.

He recalled how the summer of Forlini’s began when he got a call from Vogue last spring.

“We want your restaurant,” said the caller. “We want to close you down on a Saturday.”

“I don’t want to close on Saturday, to be honest,” he replied.

“Well, what would it take to make that happen?” the caller asked.

“So I threw them a number,” he continued. “Figured she’d walk away. But she said yes. Then she said they needed to come in early. I asked why. She said: ‘Well, we need to prep. We have to prep.’”

Since that May evening, a dozen stylish parties that have lasted until daybreak have been booked at the restaurant. “I even got one this coming Monday, in fact,” Mr. Forlini said. “They told me they want to do it identical to the Vogue party and want the same stuff on the menu.” As for their fresh-faced visitors, Forlini’s has nothing but kind words. “They’re all nice kids,” said Mr. Forlini. “Good kids. They’ve never caused trouble. Some are so thin though you wonder how they can even drink liquor.”

On a recent summer evening, the court crowd had left, the stylish people had yet to arrive, and a group of writers and artists had the restaurant to themselves. They didn’t see themselves as newcomers: they had discovered the place before the models and the Instagram crew, and they felt a proprietary claim to the spot.

Sara Blazej, 29, and Josh Citarella, 31, sat at this lively table in the main dining room. They run an art gallery out of their apartment nearby, and Forlini’s has become their favorite haunt. “We like it here because it doesn’t have the sleek, overpriced feel of the Lower East Side,” Ms. Blazej said. “It’s also not filled with …” She whispered the rest of her thought. “Well, I don’t want to use the word, but: hipsters.”

Mr. Citarella huffed. “The skater kids will be here soon,” he added ruefully. “I’m certain of it.”

Seated further down the table was an actress named Sheila Vand. She sipped wine as a male model walked into the restaurant; he acknowledged nobody and stared hard ahead as he strode toward a private dinner starting in the restaurant’s back room. “I follow that guy on Instagram,” Ms. Vand said. “He’s going to think he looks cool every time he walks past us. But who even is he? I’m pretty sure he does nothing. He’s Instagram famous. He’s just one more kid with an Instagram account.”

She described her affection for Forlini’s. “I’m a transplant,” she said. “I came here from the West Coast. What the hell happened to the New York that I was promised? A city that is raw and real? Now I pay thousands of dollars for an apartment, and what did I get? Williamsburg? Finance bros and hipsters? I’m twisting someone’s arm every night just to go out and dance and have a good time. This place still has character.”

Her friend chimed in. “We should start going to Spain,” she said. “No finance bros there.”

A month later, summer started to wane and the fate of Forlini’s was unclear: Was it over already? A lunchtime visit suggested its allure remained intoxicating. Joe Forlini, 65, counted up cash in the restaurant’s cluttered office. And Phoenix Johnson, 23, entered the restaurant to order some pappardelle Bolognese.

When the dish arrived, Mr. Johnson stood on top of his chair and started photographing the meal. Mr. Forlini walked by and chided him. “You gotta eat the pappardelle before doing that!” he said. The young man smiled before adjusting some noodles on the plate with his hand. Later, Mr. Forlini passed by, more distressed. “You going to eat that?” he said. “It’s getting cold.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this,” said Mr. Johnson. “But probably not.”

Alex Vadukul is a city correspondent for Metropolitan.