Chef Harold Dieterle has teamed up with restaurateur Alexandra Shapiro to bring a new coastal Italian eatery, Il Totano, to Manhattan’s West Village.
Upon entering Il Totano—the handiwork of locally based designer Sasha Bikoff—guests are whisked away to the coast of Southern Italy with a burst of hand-painted blue and white diaphanous striped wallpaper. This sense of place is further heightened by a dark walnut deco bar, which evoke a sleek Riva boat cruising through the Amalfi Coast.
Taking a page from cult Italian fashion brand Marni, the restaurant layers terracotta, tangerines, and mustard-hued fabrics for the circular banquettes in the main dining room. Here, a 1970s yacht party aesthetic is brought to life via chrome mushroom lamps and multi-colored ceramic nautilus sconces.
The 85-seat restaurant also houses a temperature- and humidity-controlled chamber in the passageway to the dining room, where guests can see Dieterle’s dry-aged fish offerings.
The environment is rounded out with a soundtrack of nostalgic Italian music and ’70s American pop.
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