Forget that July is the month of restaurant openings. Let's focus on one July day: Both Craft and Osteria Mozza open for business on Friday, July 13th. Some chefs get married on the luckiest day of the century, others open on an unlucky day. Nothing wrong with that. This reeks of pissing match: The battle of New York celebrity-chef egos is so ON!
CRAFT: Official word from the Craft camp is that it opens on July 16, but we got this from a tipster today: "Craft's grand opening is on Friday the 13th!!! Rezzies are now available through open table. I just got one Friday night at 7:30pm...prime time YAY!!" STATUS: Confirmed. The restaurant is indeed opening, and reservations are available.
OSTERIA MOZZA: Several emailers said Osteria's sign was finally unveiled this week (and yet everyone forgets their cameras), and activity is afoot. We get word from a friend and/or family member: "Ate at the pre-open last night. It's everything I wanted it to be. The food is amazing, specifically the mole panino (it's got mole salami from Mario's dads place in Seattle), the raviolo (it's got an egg in it and you crack the yolk and it's golden goodness), the mussels, the salmon, the orechiette, the grilled octopus!!! Everything was great. The service was very attentive, intuitive even and the room is beautiful. Better than Angelini." STATUS: Pending. We heard this one before, but a call to the Osteria still gets the message from someone's old Italian mamma saying not open to the public yet. However, a call placed to the Pizzeria reveals, "Hopefully this weekend." It is very like a Batali-owned spot to keep everything on the down-low as much as possible. But we've been hearing the 13th for a few days, so we'll just keep thinking that.
***UPDATE***: This just in from an obsessed Osteria Watcher such as ourselves: "Just called mozza and they said the reservation line for Osetria will be open tomorrow (7/12) morning at 10 am." Get those dialing fingers ready, folks. If you thought a res at the pizzeria was bad, hooo-boy. Mozza won't confirm if they're open on Friday, but no one will deny either.
· CraftWatch: T-Minus Six Days and Counting [~ELA~]
· Osteria Mozza Watch: Opening Friday the 13th? [~ELA~]
· July Food Frenzy [~ELA~]
