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“Falai”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Lower East Side	Moderate	Good

There are many reasons chefs open eponymous restaurants. Most of the time the self-naming is a product of extreme success, ego, or narcissism, or some justifiable combination of all the above. For Iacopo (say YA-capo) Falai, the chef and owner of the newly opened Falai—a sparkly white, boutique-styled restaurant on Clinton Street—none of these factors was involved. His reason is a bit closer to home. Iacapo’s father owned a pastry shop in his hometown of Piazza Santa Croce in Florence called Falai, and tragically, he died before Iacapo was born. Falai is the culmination of a son’s dream to open a restaurant that would honor his father’s memory.

Dad must be smiling big up there in Florence’s side of heaven. (There’s much better food in that part of heaven, I would imagine.) And not just because his son has succeeded in opening his own place, but because of what his young son has already accomplished in his 33 years of life. Iacapo is a savory chef, most recently of the two-star Bread Tribeca, but he was also the pastry chef at Le Cirque 2000. Prior to coming to the States, he was the bread baker and executive pastry chef in Florence at three-star Michelin Enoteca Pinchiorri, a bread baker at three star Michelin Michel Bras in Lagouille, France, and the chocolate chef at Michel Belin, a small chocolate shop in Albi, France, where he collaborated with Fauchon to develop new techniques in chocolate making. See what I mean? Dad must be beaming.

The thing is, not only is he talented and accomplished, but the guy is so sweet and full of life, you just want to hug him on your way home, and wish him well. He is like the chef version of Life is Beautiful star Roberto Benigni. He is miraculously jubilant and effervescent—bubbling over with genuine passion for what he does—bringing joy to his guests from his small kitchen.

Falai, the restaurant he owns with his wife Sofia, is a Cinderella slipper of a restaurant—a petite space with an open kitchen (chefs Matteo and Fabio are up there cooking nightly), a perfume counter-styled bar, and glowing white walls washed with delicate lace and dazzling crystal sugar designs falling unexpectedly from corners of the room, like shooting stars frozen in flight. The concise menu (YAY! This is one you can really wrap your mind around – like Bruni, I am OVER long menus) is Italian, but not of a specific region, more of the heart of the chef—h ... [more, click below]

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Posted: March 12, 2005

Other restaurants in Lower East Side :
+ Mojo   + WD-50   + Schiller's Liquor Bar   + Azul Bistro   + Barrio Chino   + 71 Clinton Fresh Food-- Closed   + Little Giant   + Kuma Inn   + Falai   + The Stanton Social   + The Tides   + Thor   + The Orchard   + El Bocadito-- CLOSED   + Bondi Road   + Rayuela   + Suba   + Bun (boone)   + Sorella   + The Fat Hippo   + Pulino's   

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