Violet, You're Turning Violet, Violet

[elizabeth d. herman for the ny times]The world has turned a watchful eye to food and the people who cook it. Now more than ever, food cultures thrive like mother starters and chefs/restaurateurs with solo projects are a dying breed. The guys from Battersby are expanding, Alex Stupak cooks some of the city's best Mexican in two different neighborhoods, and while Danny Bowien's business model thrives on two coasts, chefs like Mario Batali and Michael White seem to be chasing world domination. As chefs grow their restaurant empires, and grow them they will, it gives New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells plenty to eat, but might come at the cost of a diluted vision.

Wells took the forth star away from Daniel recently and hinted that it was due, in large part, to the idea that Daniel Boulud might be spreading himself thin. With a global empire that includes seven restaurants in New York, Boulud's task to maintain perfection at Daniel, his flagship, is exponentially more difficult with so many cooks in the kitchen.

The same might be said of today's review, in which Wells files on Costata, Michael White's return to 206 Spring Street where he started cooking in New York more than a decade ago. Costata, like the Elm and the Marrow, seemed to us as a concept that was chasing three New York Times stars. The Marrow fell two short, we patiently await Wells' thoughts on the Elm, and find Costata coming up one star shy.

"All those Foreigner and Stone Temple Pilots songs aren’t helping to set the mood," Wells writes, even though the loud rock thing worked for Babbo in 2004 when Frank Bruni awarded the restaurant three stars. Wells isn't a fan of the decor, a facet of the restaurant Adam Platt focused on for 80% of his short-winded review of Costata recently. Wells comments on "flame-shaped light bulbs programmed to flicker on and off." To Costata's defense, there's little else you can do without an open flame permit. But enough about that. On to the food.

Wells loves the pasta, "For a minute, we’re wondering if he’s laying it on a bit thick, showering shredded fontina over the oxtail ragù with cavatelli," he writes. "Then we take another bite and decide that when somebody makes pasta as wonderful as this, there are some questions you just don’t ask."

Pointing to a couple of the entrees, the critic writes, "Some of these dishes have a coarseness that wasn’t there when we first met," referring to White's time spent at Convivio and Alto before imploding with his Altamarea Group. Since the group's inception, Michael White's (exceptional) cooking and ensuing success has spawned projects in Hong Kong, London, New Jersey and New York, where he has opened six restaurants, three of which this year alone.

Few do it better than Michael White, and when a chef of his calibar falls short of the third star, it solidifies what we wrote about two weeks ago – two is the new three – and brings us to this question: If Costata were a standalone concept, or even White's second or third restaurant, would the likelihood of a three-star review be higher? [NYTimes]

N.Y. State of Restaurant Minds (and Our Meal at the Elm)

The Elm is one of the few restaurants to open this year that seems to be after three stars from The New York Times. The Marrow and Lafayette struck us as concepts that sought the same achievement, but both came up two stars short. We're certain Michael White's team at Costata is chasing three as well, but that review won't be out until (probably) September.

The trend is very much away from fine dining, polished rooms, and chiseled service from suited waiters. It's as if every new restaurant is following what's become the two star template. Pearl & Ash, Uncle Boons, ABC Cocina, Montmartre, Hanjan, and Mighty Quinn's have all opened in the past seven or eight months and have all received two stars. They are fun, casual eateries where reservations and a month spent saving aren't necessary to eat there.

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Show Me a Sign: Costata

Signage has gone up recently at Costata, Michael White's three-story Italian steakhouse opening tomorrow night in the former Fiamma space. White got his New York City start in Fiamma's kitchen as the executive chef when the restaurant opened in 2002. Ahmass Fakahany, who is now White's partner in the Altamarea Group, was a regular there. His favorite thing on Fiamma's menu was a pasta with truffle cream, peas, prosciutto, and parm. That's why you'll find "Garganelli alla Fiamma" on the Costata menu.

PJ Calapa, who also runs the kitchen at White's Ai Fiori in midtown, is Costata's executive chef. In addition to pasta, crudo, and seafood, the steakhouse menu will have filet cuts, strips, ribeye (boneless and bone-in), porter house, porter house for two, and tomahawk for two in addition to lamb and veal. Seven sauces are available to pair with the array of steak options.

Eben Freeman, who will also run the cocktail program at Altamarea Group's Tribeca project the Butterfly when that opens in the coming weeks, is in charge of the bar program at Costata. Hristo Zisovski, who joined the Altamarea Group in 2010 after seven years at Jean Georges, is the beverage director.

Costata's three floors seat around 170. A small standing bar and 35 seats make up the first. The second has an eight person bar, lounge, and 65 seats, and the top floor is a private event space that can accomodate up to 60 guests.

Costata opens tomorrow night.

Abracadabra, Fiamma Costata

Michael White made his New York debut in 2002 as the executive chef of Fiamma. The restaurant closed at the beginning of 2009 and has sat dormant since, but former building owner, BR Guest’s Steve Hanson, recently sold it. The new owners have leased the space to White and his business partner Ahmass Fakahany, and while the ghost of Fiamma still stands, the pending project marks the third on Altamarea Group’s horizon.

The Butterfly has been on our radar the longest, having been granted a liquor license almost a year ago last March. The smallish, 55-seat space will be opening this spring on West Broadway in Tribeca. Butterfly's menu will be inspired by White's Midwest upbringing, and bartender extraordinaire Eben Freeman, who hasn't worked behind a bar since his time at Tailor over two years ago, has been resurrected to head-up the cocktail program.

The Upper West Side will welcome White later this year on Madison and 86th Street, where Ristorante Morini will open in the former Centolire space. The restaurant will be an uptown, upscale version of the more casual Osteria Morini, which has locations in Soho and Jersey. The two-story 1167 Madison Avenue address will have a cafe downstairs with white tablecloth dining on the upper level, and the menu will take a broader tour of Italy's cuisine, rather than the Emilia Romagna-focused fare served at Osteria.

The new SoHo restaurant taking over the Fiamma space is going to be called Costata, the Italian name for a particular cut of beef, which suggests this might be White's first go at a steakhouse. Costata will likely happen after The Butterfly and Ristorante Morini, but this early in the year, a 2013 opening isn't out of the question.