Profile

This venue is closed.

Nikki Cascone from Top Chef season four (the Chicago one) sold 24 Prince, the Soho restaurant she owned with her husband, Brad Grossman, and it became Oficina Latina. She and Grossman have named their second venture Octavia’s Porch, after the main street in Rome’s Jewish ghetto, as a nod to the couple’s Jewish-Italian heritage.  It's touting itself as “the first and only Global Jewish restaurant” on the Lower East Side (in the East Village, to be exact).

Cascone, who isn't keeping kosher here but also isn't serving pork or shellfish, is doing plates inspired by dishes that Jews introduced to countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Northern Africa. (A combination of red quinoa, green beans, pumpkin seeds, and citrus is based on a dish favored by South American Jews). The wines come from the same areas, and cocktails, like a vanilla-vodka egg cream, also fit the theme.
— Daniel Maurer