Frankies 570 Spuntino, the Manhattan annex of Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli’s Brooklyn restaurant empire, will close in about two weeks.
But the corner restaurant in Greenwich Village shouldn’t be empty for long. Come November, the Franks, as they are known, plan to open a new restaurant. They are partnering with the chef Nick Anderer, formerly of the Union Square Hospitality Group.
“I hate to use the word ‘close,’” Mr. Castronovo said. “It’s going to go into a transition, and then it’s going to be reborn.”
Enter Anton’s. The restaurant, named after Mr. Anderer’s great-great grandfather, who immigrated from Germany, will be “an updated, more modern version of a nostalgic New York cafe,” Mr. Anderer said. Still-life paintings will hang on the walls, and there will be some antique furniture. Think old-fashioned without being quaint.
“We want to pay respect to the people who shaped New York,” he said. “It’s inspired by food that people brought over from Europe.”
Mr. Anderer and Natalie Johnson, who will be the restaurant’s general manager and beverage director, met at Marta, a restaurant in the Union Square Hospitality Group, where Mr. Anderer was the executive chef and managing partner from 2014 to 2018. He also worked from 2009 to last spring as the executive chef at Maialino, in the Gramercy Park Hotel.
“I wanted to have a restaurant, always, that had some grit, and some neighborhood grit,” he said. “I think this place really has that.”
Mr. Castronovo and Mr. Falcinelli, of Frankies Spuntino Group, have been busy lately. In a few weeks, their new slice joint, F & F Pizzeria, will open on Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, between their flagship restaurant, Frankies 457 Spuntino, and Franks Wine Bar, which has been open for about a year. Frankies 570 opened in 2011.
“What we’re doing in Brooklyn is definitely embraced by the Brooklyn crowd,” Mr. Castronovo said. “Manhattan has different needs and wants. The casual Brooklyn-style service is not as acceptable in Manhattan,” Mr. Falcinelli agreed. “It’s a very different clientele, a very different crowd,” he said. “I think that we both felt that it was something that really needed a hefty relaunch.”
Frankies 570, on Hudson Street at West 11th Street, will close for a few months while the partners renovate the interior and develop a menu, putting some of its 39 employees at least temporarily out of full-time work. Mr. Castronovo said that anyone who wanted to return could do so.
“Nobody is losing their job,” he said in a text message. “Everybody who wants to work can stay.”
Mr. Anderer, who first discovered his passion for cooking while studying in Rome as an art-history major at Columbia University, cooks with what he called “a heavily Italian slant.” Anton’s menu, with food inspired by several European cuisines, will also have a homemade-pasta section.
“His reputation is well known,” Mr. Castronovo said. “The first thing I said was: ‘You’re going to make pasta, right?’”
Together, Mr. Anderer and Ms. Johnson have begun research to plan the menu, spending time with the New York Public Library’s menu collection, trying to find older dishes to update. One nod to the past will be what they’re calling a Hudson rarebit, a melted local Cheddar cheese served on local rye bread.
“There’s a casual sophistication to the West Village,” Mr. Anderer said. “I get to start to really realize this concept in a neighborhood that I’ve already dreamed about.”
