For all of its worship of novelty and new faces, New York has an echelon of veteran chefs who have quietly persevered for decades, admired and continually achieving but not making any new headlines. In October, though, several will step back into the spotlight.
Top among them is Alfred Portale, who was the chef and a partner at the esteemed Gotham Bar and Grill for nearly 35 years. He left in May, when his priority became the opening of Portale, in Chelsea, offering his personal take on Italian food — something he has been itching to do after years of new-American cooking. “I’m an Italian-American, and I love Italy,” he said.
Mr. Portale, 65, plans to make pastas in-house and dress them with seasonal ingredients for what he is calling modern Italian. At Gotham, he was known for his flair for presentation, and expects to keep at it. He is turning the two-room space, which formerly housed Rouge Tomate, into something easygoing with exposed brick and the same à la carte menu in both rooms.
Another influential chef, Larry Forgione, is also shifting gears from American to Italian. Mr. Forgione won fame in the 1980s for pioneering new-American food and domestic ingredients, but in recent years his son, Marc — tattooed, mohawked and slinging steaks — has drawn more attention. The elder Mr. Forgione, 67, who is back in New York after being the culinary director of the Foley Food & Wine Society, in California, will work with his son at Davide, on the spacious lower level of the former Spice Market in the meatpacking district. “I like to think of myself as mature enough now to work with my dad,” said Marc Forgione, 40.
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The restaurant is named for Davide Sorrenti, a young fashion photographer who died in 1997, and is being designed by the artist Roy Nachum. “When we cook at home, we do Italian over a wood-burning fire,” the younger Mr. Forgione said. “Why not do it in a restaurant?” He also said his father was “obsessed” with pinsa, a type of oval Roman flatbread made with various toppings, like pizza, and they plan to serve it, along with traditional and new interpretations of pasta.
Shaun Hergatt, an Australian transplant who earned a Michelin star for Juni before it closed in 2016, has been biding his time managing the restaurant for residents of a Park Avenue condominium tower. Now 44, he will open the Vestry, an 80-seat restaurant carved out of a corner of the Dominick Hotel, in Hudson Square.
He envisions an American menu, strongly biased toward local and seasonal fish and vegetables. Maitake mushrooms with surf clams and daikon sprouts, avocado with honeynut squash, tilefish with edamame, and crispy nori tartlets with salmon are a few of the dishes he’s likely to feature. He plans an à la carte menu, not a tasting lineup as at Juni. “After Juni I wanted to take some time off,” he said. “But now I’m eager to cook for the public again. I like doing that.”
It has been only three months since the Four Seasons restaurant closed, but Bill Yosses, 67, who was its high-profile pastry chef (and held that position at the White House when the Obamas lived there), will open Palais by Perfect Pie with John Wu and other partners. It will be an all-day bistro and a brick-and-mortar outlet for his online business selling sweet and savory pies.
He is also luring a former mentor, Jean-Jacques Rachou, 84, out of retirement to work alongside him in the kitchen from time to time, consulting on the food. Mr. Rachou, best known as the owner of La Côte Basque, will assist Mr. Yosses in expanding the savory side of the French-accented menu. The Upper East Side space formerly housed Mr. Rachou’s Le Lavandou.
Davide 403 West 13th Street, October.
Palais by Perfect Pie 134 East 61st Street, October.
Portale 126 West 18th Street, October.
The Vestry 246 Spring Street (Varick Street), October.
