Valet parking, that highly suburban luxury, is coming to Tenth Avenue’s burgeoning restaurant row. Mario Batali’s Del Posto, Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak, and Morimoto, all of which will open in the next few months, will each have valets. “It’s been my dream to be able to pull up at a restaurant in my car,” says Joe Bastianich, Batali’s partner, who lives in Connecticut. “The market’s really competitive, and you need to distinguish yourself somehow,” says Colicchio. And valet parking certainly has interesting . . . associations. F.illi Ponte—on the West Side Highway near Canal—has offered free valet parking since 1967. “Yeah,” admits manager Karen Mannarelli. “There is an aura of the Mafia around the restaurant.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
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