One of Manhattan’s most fabled but currently empty restaurant sites won’t be dark much longer.
Texas-born Italian cuisine master Stefano Secchi, the chef of Michelin-starred Rezdora and Massara, both in Flatiron, bought the retail condominium at 12 East 12th St. that was home to Gotham Bar and Grill and later, simply Gotham until it closed two years ago.
Modern-American Gotham was long one of the city’s most honored restaurants. It lost its luster after chef Alfred Portale left to launch his own place on West 18th Street. New owners and several new chefs tried their hands but it closed for good in 2024.
We called Secchi’s Emilia Romagna-inspired menu at Rezdora “sinfully delicious.”
The asking price on the two-level, 7,800 square-foot space was $6.5 million, according to Newmark’s Jeffrey Roseman, who with colleague Mark Frankel represented the sellers, identified as 12/12 Realty Associates. Shopping Center Group’s Jacqueline Klinger and Ian Rice repped the buyers.
A source said Secchi beat out a large field of suitors for the space: “Every big name looked at it.”
No further information on Secchi’s plans for the space was immediately available.
Other major chefs who worked at Gotham included Tom Colicchio, Wylie Dufresne, Bill Telepan and the late Tom Valenti.