On a latest morning, Catharine Dahm ducked into Raf’s, the French-Italian bakery and restaurant on a pocket-size block of Elizabeth Avenue in downtown Manhattan. It was her first time there, however earlier than the test had even arrived, she was resolved to return.
“That is going to be my common spot whereas I’m right here,” stated Ms. Dahm, a 32-year-old clothier, who was on the town from Paris and staying close by. The restaurant’s facade, with breads displayed within the entrance window, reminded her of the Previous World-style cafes again dwelling, Ms. Dahm stated. On the time, she didn’t understand she can be inducting herself right into a contingent of regulars who hail from the worlds of style, design and media.
In contrast to its buzzy NoHo neighbors Jean’s and the non-public members membership Zero Bond, the place movie star sightings make frequent fodder for social media and Web page Six readers, or the close by Milanese import Sant Ambroeus, recognized to locals for its “see and be seen” vibe, Raf’s maintains a considerably decrease profile. However since inheriting the house that was the longtime dwelling to Parisi Bakery, a provider to most of the metropolis’s high eateries, the spot has discreetly established itself as a classy but unpretentious refuge for style world fixtures to congregate on and off obligation.
Regardless of its shut orbit of scene-y and in-demand eating places — there’s additionally Estela, which as soon as hosted President Barack Obama; Emilio’s Ballato, the place vacationers line up for tables nightly; and the go-big-or-go-home-hungry bravado of Torrisi — Raf’s has managed to thrive as a clubroom for the style crowd whereas largely flying below the radar of social media.
Final week, the restaurant hosted a cocktail party to rejoice the discharge of i-D journal’s inaugural concern below new possession. Among the many 35 visitors becoming a member of the editor in chief, Thom Bettridge, and Karlie Kloss, whose media firm has acquired the journal, had been the mannequin Devyn Garcia, the stylist Stella Greenspan and the Luar clothier Raul Lopez.
“I grew up in New York,” stated Mr. Bettridge, an everyday because the restaurant’s opening days. “It jogs my memory of the sensation of a few of these ’90s-era eating places the place there’s this sort of buzzy vibe, however it additionally appears like dwelling — like Odeon or Pastis.”
The posh e-commerce retailer Internet-a-Porter, Cultured journal and the style label Proenza Schouler have additionally hosted dinner events and occasions at Raf’s, the place waiters nimbly zigzag among the many eating room’s comfortable 11 tables. On weekdays, it has grow to be the favored canteen for journal tastemakers, together with the Interview editor in chief Mel Ottenberg, and designers and style insiders with places of work in close by SoHo.
“At one level, I felt like I used to be there for a lunch or breakfast assembly two or 3 times per week,” stated Isabella Isbiroglu, a director of worldwide communications on the style label Khaite.
The wood-fired ovens, an elemental function of the restaurant lengthy predating Parisi Bakery, have been round since 1935, when a younger immigrant from Sicily named Angelina Bivona opened Angie’s Italian & French Bakery Cafe. Angie’s was by no means actually a French bakery, although.
Raf’s homeowners, the dual sisters Nicole and Jennifer Vitagliano, clarify that the curious descriptor was a method of sidestepping the anti-Italian immigrant sentiment of that point. “She referred to as it French-Italian to make it sound fancier,” Nicole Vitagliano stated. The sisters, native New Yorkers who grew up in an Italian American family, had discovered a property tax {photograph} revealing the bakery’s storefront whereas researching the constructing’s historical past.
“That photograph ended up informing our total idea,” Nicole Vitagliano stated. “Calling it French-Italian when there was nothing French about it spoke to us.” At the moment Raf’s entrance window signage has the identical phrasing, whereas the interiors bear a European cafe-society aesthetic. It’s slightly Parisian, slightly extra Italian, with servers nattily attired in pajama-style tops. There’s a pink marble bar, saffron velvet banquettes and a frescoed ceiling with a cloud-filled sky hovering over the warmly lit room.
Flash images is a no-no within the eating room. “It’s distracting,” Jennifer Vitagliano stated. “We take our visitor expertise very significantly, and when there’s a flash, it’s like all of the sudden everybody stops.”
The ensuing scarcity of social media content material is okay by its homeowners. “We wish to see folks of affect in right here, not influencers,” Jennifer Vitagliano stated. To her, which means visitors like Patti Smith and Lauren Hutton, longtime New Yorkers whom she remembers seeing on the Noho Star, a bygone neighborhood establishment.
The sisters, 40, who named Raf’s in honor of their grandmother, and Nicole Vitagliano’s daughter, additionally personal and function the Musket Room, a Michelin-starred restaurant one block south, and the Levantine-inspired Cafe Zaffri within the newly opened Twenty-Two lodge and personal members membership.
Whereas Jennifer Vitagliano has spent most of her profession in meals and eating places, her twin sister beforehand pursued style, working at BlackBook journal and as a stylist. “Quite a lot of our pals are nonetheless in style,” she stated. It’s a loyal crowd, she attests, albeit one with excessive aesthetic requirements.
Jennifer Vitagliano additionally credit a steadfast sisterhood with the restaurant’s success. “As a result of we’re girls operating this restaurant, which nonetheless feels form of distinctive to our trade, there’s been numerous help from feminine designers particularly.”
Maria McManus, who says she believes supporting socially acutely aware female-founded companies is “extra necessary than ever,” is one such designer. “I see the dinner desk as the feminine equal of the men-only golf course, and the Raf’s girls embody this,” she stated.
Sustaining a female-led enterprise is uppermost within the sisters’ imaginative and prescient. “We expect that ought to be extra commonplace,” Nicole Vitagliano stated. Mary Attea and Camari Mick, the cooks at Raf’s, lead their different eating places as properly, and 75 % of their managerial positions are at present held by girls.
How lengthy can an institution with a trendy following actually stay inconspicuous? Ms. Isbiroglu, from Khaite, has already seen a shift. “It’s humorous, as a result of now when I’ve breakfast conferences, I’ll stroll in and see somebody, and it’s like, Oh, usually we stumble upon one another at Sant Ambroeus, however now we’re discovering ourselves right here.”
On the i-D celebration, Mr. Bettridge disregarded concern. “It’s not this runway vibe, with everybody watching if you stroll in,” he stated.
To some extent, seeing acquainted faces is an intentional facet of the restaurant’s attraction. “While you come right here, you realize you’re going to run into folks,” Jennifer Vitagliano stated. She and her sister nonetheless oversee the nightly bookings to make sure a wholesome steadiness of regulars and new faces.
However she dismissed the notion of being SoHo’s newest scorching spot. “We’re attempting to create one thing extra timeless,” she stated. “Calling us a classy place can be the worst factor.”
