Don Angie – the West Village spiral that redraws lasagna

On a short stretch of Greenwich Avenue in the West Village, Don Angie turns a narrow townhouse into one of New York's most argued-over reservations. Opened in 2017 by husband-and-wife chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli, in partnership with Michael Stillman's Quality Branded group, the restaurant reworks Italian-American classics with a cook's precision rather than nostalgia alone. Today it is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a status that follows an earlier Michelin star awarded in May 2021 and a run of attention that began with a glowing two-star critic's pick from The New York Times in 2018 and a nod on Esquire's Best New Restaurants list that same year. The dining room is small, the tables close, the pace brisk. What keeps people booking weeks ahead is a kitchen that treats red-sauce comfort food as a technical problem worth solving, nowhere more visibly than in the restaurant's pinwheel-rolled lasagna, the dish that made it famous far beyond the neighbourhood.

01The room and the setting

Don Angie occupies a compact, townhouse-scaled space at 103 Greenwich Ave, in the heart of the West Village. The look leans into old New York rather than farmhouse rustic: inside, checkerboard floors and blue-gray leather booths set a scene built for lingering, a room designed for close conversation and shared plates rather than private tables for two. Early arrivals often queue for bar seats before service even begins, a detail that says as much about the restaurant's reputation as any review.

The restaurant sits alongside Rito and Tacinelli's second venture, San Sabino, and together the two represent the pair's wider push into Italian-American cooking beyond the original dining room, while Don Angie itself remains the flagship on Greenwich Avenue.

02The chefs

Angie Rito grew up around her family's Italian bakery in Cleveland; her family has owned and operated Rito's Bakery and import store there since 1965, a business her grandfather opened after arriving from Sicily, and that early exposure to cooking and running a business shaped her ambition to open her own restaurant one day. Scott Tacinelli came to food from a different direction, leaving eight years in advertising sales at CBS radio to enrol at the French Culinary Institute while working as a line cook, before being hired under chef Craig Koketsu at the newly opened Park Avenue Seasons and rising quickly to sous chef.

Insider tip

Booking well ahead is advised; the dining room is small and in high demand.

The two met in New York: Rito started in the front of house and ended up captaining at Park Avenue Seasons before moving into the kitchen herself, working from line cook to sous chef, while Tacinelli became chef de cuisine of Quality Meats in 2011 and executive chef of Quality Italian in 2012. Rito later refined her technique at Torrisi Italian Specialties, and the pair went on to run dinnertable, a nineteen-seat speakeasy in the East Village, before opening Don Angie with Quality Branded in 2017 to realise their idea of a small, personal neighbourhood restaurant built around Italian-American comfort food.

03The cooking

The restaurant's signature is Our Lasagna for Two, a sausage bolognese layered with bechamel, mozzarella and whipped robiolina rather than ricotta, then rolled and cut into pinwheels instead of being stacked in the traditional way. The technique was borrowed, by the chefs' own account, from cinnamon rolls rather than any classic Italian source, and the rolling rather than layering method is what gives each portion its crisp edge on top and soft base underneath, making it easier to share without the dish collapsing into a single tray. The pork, veal, and sausage-studded bolognese is layered alongside a classic Italian bechamel, mozzarella cheese, and dollops of robiolina cheese for a lighter touch, with the rolling instead of stacking method that really makes it stand out.

That same instinct for reworking familiar dishes runs through the rest of the menu, from a Chicken Scarpariello built up with blackened sausage, capocollo and Anaheim chillies, to a Chrysanthemum Salad dressed simply with garlic, sesame and Parmesan. The restaurant's acclaim followed quickly after opening: shortly after opening, Don Angie earned a 2-star critic's pick review from The New York Times, was named one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America in 2018, and was awarded a Michelin star in 2021. Rito and Tacinelli also picked up James Beard Foundation nominations in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and published their own cookbook, Italian American, with Clarkson Potter.

04What to order

Beyond the lasagna, the pasta list leans toward texture games: Buffalo Milk Caramelle with black sesame and candied kumquat, Stracchino Gnocchi with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone, and a Sourdough Pasta Cacciatore built on mezcal-braised chicken and nduja. Among the mains, Orata alla Griglia arrives with golden panzanella and clams 'Sabino', and the Whole Roasted Lobster for Two is finished with a smoked vodka sauce and spicy polenta tortelli. Starters worth the table space include the BBQ Calamari with pepperoni fried rice and herbed labneh, and the Tonnato Vitello, a spicy veal tartare paired with tuna carpaccio. To finish, the Black Cocoa Tiramisu, layered with Marsala caramel and crispy feuilletine, reads as the house's dessert answer to the lasagna's showmanship.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list stays almost entirely Italian by the glass, running from a Trentodoc Brut and a Veneto Prosecco through Marche whites, a Sicilian orange wine from COS, and reds built around Nerello Mascalese, Nebbiolo and Brunello di Montalcino. Cocktails follow the same playful logic as the kitchen: Nonna's Little Nip mixes grapefruit, Campari and Prosecco, while the Negroni Rosa is built on Piucinque Gin with opal basil and peach bitters. For after dinner, the restaurant pours its own house-made limoncello-style 'Cellos and nocino alongside a deep bench of Italian and American amari, from Fernet Branca to Lo-Fi Gentian.

06The neighbourhood

Don Angie is located in Manhattan's West Village, on a stretch where the restaurant's menu re-imagines comforting Italian-American dishes from the chefs' own childhoods. The surrounding blocks of Greenwich Avenue mix small bakeries, vintage shops and townhouse restaurants, making it an easy walk from both the Hudson River piers and the shops of Bleecker Street, and a natural stop for an evening that starts or ends with a slow walk through the neighbourhood's tree-lined side streets.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.