Fasano – a century of Milanese hospitality lands on Park Avenue

At 60 East 49th Street, behind the entrance to 280 Park Avenue, Fasano occupies ground with its own New York mythology: before the current tenant arrived, this address held the relocated Four Seasons restaurant. In 2022, Gero Fasano became known in the United States for opening two new ventures in New York City, including Fasano Restaurant in Midtown East. The first North-American outpost of restaurateur Gero Fasano's namesake restaurant, Fasano New York opened in 2022 to international acclaim. It carries the Fasano family's Milanese cooking, a line that runs back to 1902 in São Paulo, into rooms designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld, with a private dining floor upstairs and a jazz-lit bar, Baretto, at the back. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a mark of its standing among New York's serious Italian dining rooms, in a city where this kind of formal Milanese hospitality has become rare.

01The room and the setting

Renowned interior designer Isay Weinfeld is behind the restaurant's design, which includes four distinct spaces: a relaxed Osteria, a main dining room, a private dining room on the second floor that seats up to 26 guests, and the Baretto jazz bar. Weinfeld is the architect behind nearly every Fasano address, from São Paulo to Punta del Este, and the New York rooms follow the same grammar of dark wood, leather and restrained lighting that defines the brand worldwide.

The address itself is loaded: Gero Fasano became known in the United States for opening two new ventures in New York City, which included Fasano Fifth Avenue, a private residence hospitality operation, and Fasano Restaurant in Midtown East. Taking over a room with that pedigree on Park Avenue and 49th Street was, by any measure, a statement of intent.

02The family behind it

The Fasano name goes back to 1902, when Vittorio Fasano, an immigrant from Milan, opened Brasserie Paulista in the historic centre of São Paulo. His descendant Gero Fasano, born on 19 April 1962 in Bela Vista, an Italian district of São Paulo, later reclaimed the family name, reopened a namesake restaurant and, from 2003, led the brand's expansion from restaurants into hotels across Brazil.

Insider tip

Closed Sundays; Baretto's live jazz runs Friday and Saturday nights alongside an à la carte menu.

Today the Fasano Group runs restaurants and hotels in Brazil, the United States, Uruguay and Italy, all built on the same Italian heritage and style of hospitality. In New York, the kitchen is led by Executive Chef Luca Gozzani, the group's executive chef, whose menu presents classic Milanese dishes rooted in recipes the family has kept since 1902.

03What to order

The menu leans on Milanese tradition rather than reinvention: Ossobuco alla Milanese con Risotto, the veal shank braised slow and served over saffron risotto, and Tortelli di Vitello con Fonduta di Parmigiano Reggiano, hand-folded veal tortelli bathed in a Parmigiano fonduta, are the two dishes the restaurant itself singles out. Bollito Misto, the boiled-meats dish that anchors Northern Italian winter tables, rounds out the canon on the New York menu.

04Wine and drinks

The wine list is built for a menu of veal, butter and saffron rather than lighter southern flavours, running past a thousand labels and carrying its own awards. After dinner, or instead of it, Baretto keeps its own calendar: live jazz and bossa nova every Friday and Saturday night, backed by an à la carte menu and a beverage programme that has picked up recognition in its own right.

05When to go and the neighbourhood

Fasano serves lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday and closes on Sundays; on weekdays, Fasano Bar stays open between services with a lighter Stuzzichini menu for anyone unwilling to wait until 5pm. The room sits on the Park Avenue flank of Midtown East, a corridor of corporate towers and consulates, inside a building whose dining-room history gives every table here something to live up to.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.