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Headquarters: New York City Annual Sales: $90 million Units: 25 Key Personnel: • John Meadow, founder/principal SINGLE CONCEPTS: • American Cut (a NYC steakhouse helmed by chef/partner Marc Forgione in NYC) • Barchetta (Mediterranean seafood, helmed by chef/partner David Pasternack). • D.O.C.G. Enoteca (casual Italian steakhouse/wine bar in Vegas • Diamond Horseshoe (a space beneath the Paramount Hotel in NYC that offers a blend of theater and dining). • Lugo Cucina Italiana (a modern Italian restaurant that captures the convivial charm of Fellini’s Rome of the 1960s.) • No. 8 (a bilevel restaurant and lounge located in the heart of New York City’s thriving Chelsea art district) • Paramount Bar & Grill (a new American restaurant at the Paramount Hotel)

• The Beach Club (at Montauk/Gurney’s Resort & Seawater Spa) • Tillie’s (American at Montauk/Gurney’s Resort & Seawater Spa) MULTIPLE CONCEPTS: • Corso Coffee (an Italian-style coffee bar with units in Atlanta, NYC and Montauk/Gurney’s Resort and Seawater Spa, Montauk) • Dolce Italian (a modern Italian restaurant in Chicago and Miami) • Rec Room (a lounge space reminiscent of a friend’s 1970s basement, with units in Miami and NYC) • Regent Cocktail Club (a blend of a classic cocktail bar and lounge) • Scarpetta (stylish Italian with units in Beverly Hills, NYC, Miami, Las Vegas and Montauk/Gurney’s Resort) UPCOMING PROJECTS: • American Cut (a unit of the steakhouse will open this fall) • American Cut Bar & Grill (a version of the steakhouse opening in San Juan, Puerto Rico this fall) • Dolce Italian (a new unit will open this fall in Atlanta) WHY IT’S COOL: John Meadow began the company 10 years ago at the ripe age of 24. In the following decade he’s consistently pushed the envelope, creating a diverse portfolio of restaurants everyone his age or any age would have on his or her must-go-to list. This year alone he’s expanding the LDV portfolio with several new nationwide openings and has taken his act on the road to Puerto Rico with American Cut Bar & Grill. Instead of hiring corporate chefs, his modus operandi is to form partnerships with top chefs, including Marc Forgione and David Pasternack. At age 35, Meadow is an unstoppable force of nature.

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Maggie GyllenhaalBROOKLYN'S INDIE STAR SIZZLES IN WHITE HOUSE DOWN

A SURPRISING ROCKEFELLER

COLLECTION

Will Posh New Condos Turn Uptown into the

New Downtown?PLUS GILLES MENDEL, ALEX TIMBERS,

DAMON ALBARN, ANDREW CARMELLINI

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“I’m a hopeless romantic.” John Meadow professes this so many

times and with such conviction you don’t dare doubt him, even

though owners of fast-growing restaurant empires aren’t typically

known for their poetic sensibilities. If Meadow is a romantic, he’s

clearly one with some very sharp business smarts. In late summer,

Meadow’s company, LDV Hospitality (the initials stand for the

famous Fellini film La Dolce Vita), which posted $80 million in reve-

nues last year, will take one of its boldest steps yet—opening American

Cut, a new concept steakhouse in downtown Manhattan. The move

is significant for several reasons: Meadow sees an undeveloped niche

for steakhouses in a city where there have been few challengers to

such stalwarts as Peter Luger and The Palm.

As importantly, he’s moved to put the LDV imprimatur on din-

ing and restaurant experiences 24/7. The morning slot is covered by

Corso Coffee, LDV’s new take on the classic Italian espresso bar.

Within the last year Meadow also entered the late-night realm, part-

nering with No. 8, a relaunch of Amy Sacco’s iconic Bungalow 8.

This recent flurry of activity coincides with Meadow seeking

higher visibility for LDV. Until now, he’s taken pains to have the res-

taurants in his portfolio—among them Scarpetta, Lucy’s Cantina

Royale, and Lugo Caffe—be defined as individual entities with

distinct personalities. “I never wanted us to be perceived as a mar-

keting machine,” he explains. But with the halo from his properties’

collective success, Meadow feels the time is finally right for “people

to view the brand name as a symbol of credibility.”

And of a certain, shall we say, “romantic” nostalgia. Although

Meadow grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, he attributes his Euro

sensibilities to an Italian-born grandfather, Giorgio Cavaglieri, an

architect in Manhattan who pioneered historical preservation.

Cavaglieri’s work focused on adaptive reuse: taking classic and his-

torical building elements and updating them for today. Meadow tries

to do the same with the design in his restaurants. “There’s no Lucite;

there’s no LED lighting; there’s no techno,” he says.

Meadow also credits time spent in Italy for fueling a fondness

for the retro glamour of Fellini-era Europe and further refining

turning the tablesHOT NEW RESTAURANT AND BAR OPENINGS GIVE JOHN MEADOW’S LDV HOSPITALITY A 24/7 MANHATTAN PRESENCE. BY ADRIENNE GAFFNEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGG DELMAN

VIEW FROM THE TOP

continued on page 42

John Meadow at No. 8, the re-envisioned Bungalow 8.

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his aesthetic eye. While a student at Cornell School of Hotel Administration, he interned

at Rome’s famous Hassler hotel, where legendary hotelier Roberto Wirth once berated

him for wearing an American-style button-down collar. Lesson learned. The devil—or

rather the sophisticated customer’s perceptions—is always in the details.

After college, Meadow spent two years in The Plaza hotel’s food and beverage manage-

ment training program. The legacy of the Oak Room and memories of Truman Capote’s

heyday spurred Meadow’s passion for the business; the all-encompassing corporate struc-

ture did not. “I realized that small business is an opportunity to cut through a lot of

bureaucracy,” he says.

He went on his own in 2004, with initial projects funded by a syndicate of investors.

That same year he partnered with Curt Huegel, a seasoned restaurateur to open a bar

called Local West, overlooking Penn Station. It was an instant moneymaker. Two years

later he introduced Gin Lane, a restaurant in the Meatpacking District with a classic,

clubby Mad Men vibe, made popular by hot spots like the Waverly Inn. But despite major

buzz and positive reviews, the restaurant was quickly shuttered. “I didn’t do that project

with Curt, it was the wrong partners, we were undercapitalized, and we didn’t have the

discipline to run a bona fide business,” he says. “It’s not just about making money. But if

you’re not making money, it’s not real.”

Meadow met chef Scott Conant and in 2008 they turned Gin Lane’s former location

into Scarpetta. It won rave reviews, was included in Esquire’s Best New Restaurants of

2008, and quickly became a New York culinary mainstay. A year late LDV was founded

(since 2011 all projects have been funded inter-

nally) and new properties have followed in a

blur: four restaurants in the Revel in Atlantic City; the

three-starred Veritas in New York; and Scarpettas in

Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, and Beverly Hills.

LDV has grown so fast it now includes 1,000 employ-

ees in five states. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival,

No. 8 had a pop-up, and plans for the next year include

expansion into Houston, Atlanta, and potentially the

UAE. To Meadow, this level of success comes from the

years of steady, head down, hard work that provided a

foundation for him and Huegel to take risks moving

forward. “We can do a restaurant tomorrow; it can

close. We’re still going to open another 10 in the next

two years,” he says.

Meadow, who travels extensively during the week,

says weekends with his wife Karin and their daughter,

Grace, at their Upper West Side apartment are sacro-

sanct—no business allowed. He says, “It’s nice then to sit

back, reflect, and enjoy what you have.” G

“Small businesses cut through a lot of bureaucracy,” says

John Meadow.

*best mistake:“Gin Lane. We had taken a long-term lease in the Meatpacking District, so even though it failed, the

next restaurant we created on the site, Scarpetta,

launched our company.”

*best business advice:“A restaurant cannot be about

one person. A restaurant is about a maître d’, the chef, the owner, the busboy, the night

porter, the butcher. All of these people together—that’s what

makes a restaurant.”

*favorite meal:“Eating at the bar at Esca.

I get two orders of the crudo tasting, whatever it may be, and

lots of white wine.”

*his secret new york: “I love the Russian & Turkish Baths on East 10th Street.”

À LA CARTE

“ It’s not just about making money. But if you’re not making money, it’s not real.”

—JOHN MEADOW

continued from page 41

BELOW: Meadow recently partnered with Amy Sacco for nightspot, No. 8. BELOW RIGHT: Meadow with Alain Allegretti, Curt Huegel, and Marc Forgione, at the opening of several of his properties at Revel in April.

42 GOTHAM-MAGAZINE.COM

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Kanye West

Richie Akiva

Scott Sartiano

Sean Combs

Warren Buffett

John Meadow

Eugene Remm

Mark Birnbaum

LeBron James

Scarlett Johansson

Scott Gerber

Alan Cumming

Michael Musto

John Barclay

Steve Walter

Steve Lewis

Beyoncé

Damon

Jude Law

Stephen Baldwin

Justin Timberlake

Julio

Zac

Leonardo DiCaprio

Russell Simmons

Spike Lee

Jared Leto

Fae Druiz

Billy Baldwin

Rachel Weisz

Lil Wayne

CC Sabathia

Andrew Goldberg

Heidi Klum

Jay Z

Rihanna

Nur Khan

Jeffrey Beers

Swizz Beatz

Amy Sacco

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Chris Brown

Owen Wilson

Steven Tyler

Robert Pattinson

Adam Lambert

Kate Upton

Tiësto

Zoe Saldana

Euan Rellie

Sean Avery

Jeremy Piven

Carmelo Anthony

Jeffrey Jah

Ronnie Madra

Stavros Niarchos III

Noah Tepperberg

Jason Strauss

Michelle Williams

Chris Rock

Serena Williams

Samantha Ronson

Disco

André Saraiva

Kevin Saunderson

Rich Medina

Marc Jacobs

Kirsten Dunst

Solange Knowles

Halle Berry

Sting

Alex Rodriguez

Cameron Diaz

Nicole Richie

Julianne Moore

Nicky Hilton

Sean Parker

Uma Thurman

Derek Jeter

Pete Wentz

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T he List

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Harrison FordTHE ICONIC ACTOR AND PARANOIA STAR TALKS PHILANTHROPY AND FILMING IN PHILADELPHIA

BEST OF STYLE 2013

What’s Hot in Philly Now

PLUS MARIA BELLO MERYL LEVITZ

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER

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THIS SUMMER THE VERY BEST OF

devour: barbecue and the latest

openings imbibe: citrusy sips relax: reiki therapy

Coffee is nearly as precious a commodity as cash in Atlantic City, a

town where you’re never quite sure when the night ends and the

day begins. Fueling the sun-drenched masses this summer is Corso

Coffee, a new European-inspired café at Revel.

“We wanted to do something different than what most people seem to

be doing within the coffee world, like a Starbucks,” says Curt Huegel, a

principal and cofounder of LDV Hospitality, the New York–based restau-

rant group behind Corso. “This is an authentic Italian coffee bar

experience,” adds John Meadow, another principal and cofounder of

LDV. “Espresso served in a porcelain cup with incredible views of the

ocean… it’s a charming experience. The Italians have a word, sprezzatura.

It means the art of nonchalant elegance. That’s the feeling we are trying

to embody here.”

Corso, which maintains a flagship in New York, offers two types of cof-

fee: Anèri Tricaffè, an Italian-style espresso that’s wood-roasted and

hand-blended, and its own locally roasted house brand, available in New

York hot spots like Pastis, Lexington Brass, and The Lion. Flaky Italian

pastries are served throughout the morning, and panini, made with bread

from sister restaurant Lugo Italian (American Cut and Azure by Allegretti

are the others, all located at Revel), are offered for lunch and dinner, with

standouts including the Del Corso, made with prosciutto, fresh mozza-

rella, basil, sliced tomatoes, and arugula.

From any of the café’s 20 seats, the red and gold hues create a “funky yet

elegant ’70s Italian vibe,” says Meadow. “This is a passion project for us.

Corso is the full dolce vita experience.” 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, 609-

572-6488; ldvhospitality.com PS

coffee talkCORSO COFFEE, A EUROPEAN-INSPIRED CAFÉ CELEBRATED FOR ITS ARTISANAL

ESPRESSO, BRINGS A TOUCH OF ITALY TO ATLANTIC CITY. BY KRISTIN DETTERLINE

THE BEST OF THE PHILADELPHIA LIFESTYLE

PHILLYSTYLEMAG.COM 167

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Haute Living - June/July 2013

Haute Living - June/July 2013

Haute Living - June/July 2013

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How to Open 22 Businesses in 10 Years & Keep the Personal Touch Alive

Olivia Terenzio, June 3, 2015

John Meadow joined the restaurant business because he dreamed of being Humphrey Bogart’s character in Casablanca — the ultimate host. A decade after opening his first bar, he now operates 22 venues (and growing), including the critically-acclaimed Scarpetta and Dolce Italian, winner of Bravo TV’s Best New Restaurant. Each concept is part of the larger LDV Hospitality group (short for la dolce vita, or “the good life”), which John founded in 2008.

John is a firm believer that “the restaurant is a team sport,” and that in addition to good food, excellent service is paramount. One of the ways his team delivers hospitality is through its VIP program, called LDV Lifestyle. Guest notes and codes track loyal customers’ preferences across all properties, so they’ll receive a memorable, personalized experience every time they visit an LDV restaurant. In this way, John builds loyalty not just to the brands, but to LDV.

Read on to learn how he makes the program work for him, from staffing and training to marketing and communications.

Guide the guest experience beyond your four walls. The goal of LDV Lifestyle is to give guests access to the entire LDV world — every brand, every location — when they want it. If a frequent guest calls looking for an eight-

top on a Friday night, John’s business is to find it for them across his restaurants and ultimately make them loyal to LDV, not just the individual brands.

And it’s not enough just to take reservations; the LDV Lifestyle team works to develop relationships with guests so that they feel taken care of — sort of like a personalized concierge. John compares the system to a modern-day, international, multibrand version of Sirio Maccione, the legendary maitre d’ at New York City’s Le Cirque: “It has to go from the most charming, elegant maitre d’ in history — Sirio behind the podium — to a group of people working within the framework of a system to cultivate an equally human connection.”

Even if guests are traveling to cities where LDV doesn’t have a presence, the team is still on call to make arrangements at recommended restaurants, fostering trust. Three members of the LDV staff are devoted entirely to the LDV Lifestyle program, ensuring that regulars are taken care of at all times.

Encourage your staff to be themselves (not robots).

John credits much of LDV’s success to his team, led by Director of Operations Antonello Paganuzzi. When it comes to hiring, he believes the old adage is true: people either get it or they don’t. Recognizing those people who are passionate about hospitality, and to whom it comes innately, is key to representing your brand, since everyone needs to buy in to the program — from the GM to the servers — for it be successful. It’s up to management to cultivate that sensibility and empower the staff. “If you want a genuine service experience, that line-level staff has to be able to be themselves,” says John. “Fundamentally, I want our service staff to be able to greet and nurture the guest experience, and that can’t come through a robotic list of policy and procedure.”

John says bussers at LDV have been promoted all the way up to managers, and he prides himself on having created a culture that feels human. Once they feel comfortable performing their responsibilities in a way that’s natural, they become motivated to learn more. That’s where a traditional training program comes in, include steps of service and the like: after the philosophical buy-in.

“There’s a big difference between memorizing and learning,” John says. “You can clearly tell when you walk into a restaurant if someone is just following the steps of service or if they are personally engaged. There’s pride in the craft and passion of service. When it’s forced, it resonates throughout; when it’s human, it feels fantastic.”

Stop fearing the word “corporate.” Today, LDV has 22 venues around the world, including everything from Corso Coffee, their espresso bar, to the high-end Scarpetta. But becoming a multinational chain of brands doesn’t have to mean sacrificing personal touches.

“One of the biggest mistakes that I made was at the beginning, I really did not want to be consumed about being a ‘brand’ as opposed to authentic, independent restaurants,” says John. “It was always LDV, we’re one LDV team, but we were sending individualized marketing messages. When we really started communicating and messaging an LDV overriding community of sorts, we’ve had fantastic results.”

The LDV team uses OpenTable to keep track of guests’ preferences, such as their favorite cocktail or whether they prefer sparkling or still water. They share the data across restaurants, so any time a guest visits an LDV restaurant, they’ll get the same hospitality. John sees these simple gestures as extra-personalized service, and it resonates with his guests. He estimates that as much as 25% of his New York City sales are driven by LDV Lifestyle guests — a small pool of people making an enormous impact.

All of the LDV brands are communicated through one database, which helps make American Cut guests aware that Scarpetta is also an LDV restaurant, for example. Around 25 people manage books and marketing in the LDV offices. “We don’t ever want to talk about “corporate” in the restaurant industry, but that effort, at a corporate level — that team of people working to offer personalized service to our core guests — it’s the best investment I’ve ever made.”

Olivia Terenzio

x LIFE

Restaurants’ Secrets to Keeping VIP Diners Happy Databases, clandestine food deliveries and other ways to please big-spending repeat customers

ENLARGE

Jim O'Connor, left, president of Douglas Elliman Property Management and a regular VIP customer at Oceana, chats with managing partner Paul McLaughlin, right, at the New York City restaurant. PHOTO: NATALIE KEYSSAR FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By ALINA DIZIK May12,201511:59a.m.ET 1COMMENTS

When Jim O’Connor walks in for a business lunch at Oceana in Midtown Manhattan, a small army of

employees gets an alert. His preferences are immediately printed out by the maître d’ on a receipt printer

and given to the general manager, server, chef and pastry chef on duty—a quick reminder that he’s a

VIP who prefers a booth.

Mr. O’Connor, president of Douglas Elliman Property Management, is escorted to his guests at a

banquette one row away from the windows to get natural light without distractions from passersby.

When it’s time to order, the sommelier discreetly recommends wines that fall within his price range,

with no mention of price. To clients, “it’s obvious that they are treating me well,” says Mr. O’Connor,

59, who lives in Yonkers, N.Y.

Business meals at a white-tablecloth restaurant are a regular part of many executives’ workday. These

diners want efficiency, predictability and privacy in their meal, and they are loyal to establishments who

give them what they want. Their business can be worth tens of thousands of dollars a year.

They aren’t Hollywood celebrities, but these business VIPs can be just as important to creating and

maintaining buzz. Restaurateurs treat them like royalty. Many offer their top 70 or so VIPs birthday

presents and secret food deliveries unavailable to other patrons. With meticulous note-taking about

clients’ food preferences and precision tactics behind the scenes, like VIP staff alerts, restaurants reward

these prized customers with seamless, personalized service.

ENLARGEStaffers at Oceana are tasked with finding out personal details and keeping careful notes about important regular guests. PHOTO: NATALIE KEYSSAR FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

In some restaurants, corporate accounts from repeat customers can make up as much as 70% of revenue,

says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Chicago-based restaurant research firm Technomic.

With many top clients, the restaurant gets a heads-up when an executive assistant mentions the boss’s

job title while making a reservation. Other times, though, restaurateurs will search online to identify

which reservations are for VIPs. “The first thing we do is Google people,” says Dean

Tsakanikas, director of hospitality at LDV Hospitality, which runs restaurants including Scarpetta,

American Cut and Dolce Italian in cities including Miami, New York and Beverly Hills, Calif. Advertisement

A restaurant often uses SevenRooms, an online database that pulls photos fromFacebook and LinkedIn

profiles, to help employees in the dining room spot an arriving VIP, recall their food preferences and

track the number of times they’ve dined with the restaurant in the past. Details on file about important

guests can be as specific as the one who prefers sparking water at room temperature.

“We don’t tell them that we keep notes in the database,” says Mr. Tsakanikas, who says all of his

company’s restaurants cater to a handful of such VIPs each evening.

ENLARGEChef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud, standing, visits with diners at his restaurant db Bistro Moderne in Miami. Managers there pay visits to the assistants of VIP customers at their offices.PHOTO: DB BISTRO MODERNE MIAMI

At Oceana, where Mr. O’Connor dines four or five times a month, frequent diners are considered those

who come in two or three times in two weeks, saysPaul McLaughlin, managing partner. Once a VIP is

flagged, an employee is delegated to maintain the relationship and keep careful notes. The staffer is

tasked with finding out personal details during moments when the customer doesn’t mind chitchat, such

as when they are waiting for other guests to arrive or while being escorted to a table.

“We all have our clients that we take the lead on, and everything comes through that particular

manager,” says Mr. McLaughlin.

Glenn Tilton, 67, former chairman of United Airlines, says his guests at Chicago Cut Steakhouse, his

favorite Windy City spot, are often ushered to the table well before he arrives. He says he has noticed

how, once the group is at the table, a manager will greet the guests first and hand them a business card.

Mr. Tilton says this approach is less awkward than when managers pop in for a quick personal chat

without acknowledging his guests. Plus, these visitors could always become regulars themselves.

Servers, when taking the meal order, will ask guests if they want bread with their meal, since Mr. Tilton

doesn’t eat bread and prefers not to have it on the table. For breakfast, coffee for his guests arrives

before his cappuccino, which he prefers to get after his steak and eggs arrive.

David Flom, Chicago Cut’s managing partner, says executives often don’t want to appear overly

demanding in front of their clients. More than 50% of Chicago Cut’s customers are meeting with clients.

ENLARGEChicago Cut Steakhouse keeps close track of the preferences of VIP regulars, including former United Airlines chairman Glenn Tilton. PHOTO: CHICAGO CUT STEAKHOUSE

The restaurant uses OpenTable, an online reservation system, to keep notes on individual diners, which

the staff reviews before the start of the shift. (Portions of OpenTable are visible only to restaurant staff.)

After months of observation, the restaurant now stocks a condiment holder of four special hot sauces for

one client and keeps the sugar substitute Stevia for another’s coffee. Guests, Mr. Flom says, “don’t want

to look like that person who is always asking for something special,”

Assistants play a role in keeping VIP diners happy. Four times a year, a manager from db Bistro

Moderne in Miami, owned by Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group, visits companies in a nearby office

building to hand out a new menu and bags of pastel-colored macarons made in-house.

“You give them the little macarons, and the assistant will tell you everything,” says Bistro Moderne

assistant general manager Andrew Kutz. When assistants walk into the restaurant, they often get VIP

treatment too, he adds. For the restaurant’s 33 best customers, Mr. Kutz sets alerts on his personal work

calendar to remember birthdays and anniversaries and send out handwritten cards.

This year, LDV launched LDV Lifestyle, an invite-only program to accommodate last-minute

reservations from valuable customers. Many of its loyal clients from New York who spend winters in

Miami or travel frequently to conventions in Las Vegas find they need last-minute reservations. “We

were seeing the same faces in different places,” he says.

Diners in the program can get last-minute, prime-time reservations at LDV properties, and they are

asked to complete a questionnaire based on dining preferences. When one of the top 300 spenders in the

database shows up at property for the first time, a note in the file is marked “SFN” (Something for

Nothing), encouraging the chef to comp the guest with a signature dish. For birthdays, Mr. Tsakanikas

will spend up to $450 to give loyal clients a bottle of their beverage of choice.

To court the many out-of-town executives traveling to Washington, D.C., ThinkFoodGgroup uses

Table8, an app that enables users to pay for last-minute reservations during peak dining hours. Top

diners, whether they are referred through the app or not, are assigned to the restaurant’s most

experienced servers rather than seated by section, says Stew Newbold, director of restaurant operations

at ThinkFoodGroup, which owns Washington-area restaurants including Zaytinya, Oyamel and Jaleo.

More advanced servers are better able pick out natural interruption points during service, Mr. Newbold

says. As soon as a VIP customer arrives, an email alert goes out to a half-dozen employees.

Other restaurateurs emphasize interacting with executives outside of the dining room. Red Stixs’s co-

owner Michael Reda says his high-end Chinese restaurant in New York’s Midtown has a no-delivery

policy. But he bends the rules for top diners.

To gain extra face-to-face time and better tap into the network of his most loyal customers, Mr. Reda

delivers food himself to small airports, hotel rooms and office buildings about 10 times a week.

“It’s part of our formula,” he says.

Corrections & Amplifications

Andrew Kutz works at db Bistro Moderne. A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to him as

Andrew Lutz.

!!

Uber launches UberEATS in parts of

Manhattan BY GINA PACE

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 6:00 AM

Uber gets people from place to place. Now the company wants to fuel its customers for the journey.

The app-based taxi service will launch its food delivery service UberEATS on Tuesday — and promises to deliver food on foot or bike within 10 minutes.

The service is only being offered between 14th and 40th Sts. in Manhattan, but the company hopes to expand.

Here's how it works: Open the app, and scroll past UberX or the messenger service UberRUSH to the UberEATS option.

Click it and choose between two dishes offered that day between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. On Tuesday, the offerings are a pastrami sandwich or a spring salad from American Cut, a steakhouse in Tribeca.

During the next week, restaurants Num Pang, Sweetgreen, Scarpetta, Lugo Cucina Italiana, Mighty Quinn and Barchetta will each offer a dish ranging in price from $9 to $13. Each order carries a $4 delivery fee no matter how many food items you order.

Some restaurants, like Num Pang, already offer delivery of their sandwiches, but for others like Barchetta it's a first.

"The market has changed," said Barchetta chef Dave Pasternack, who is preparing to sell 750 lobster rolls through the app on Friday. "You have to diversify your business, otherwise you're going to be left behind."

Uber is just the latest company trying to tap into the $70 billion food delivery market. Chipotle has recently launched delivery through a third-party service. And Starbucks and Taco Bell have both announced plans to deliver in select markets later this year.

Best Steakhouses in the U.S.

March&2013&

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“Coffee Talk with David Abes, Corso Coffee Regional Director of Operations”

By Jaclyn Overall April 21, 2015

http://atlanta.eater.com/2015/4/21/8462147/corso-coffee-atlanta-david-abes-interview

Coffee Talk with David Abes, Corso Coffee

Regional Director of Operations

The coffeeshop draws inspiration from Italy.

New York-based Corso Coffee, which opened a Buckhead Atlanta outpost in December, is a jack of all trades, offering coffee and pastry in the morning, a selection of panini and salads throughout the day, and a complete bar menu at night. The front wall is all window, allowing customers an abundance of natural light and a view of Peachtree Street. The side wall is lined with plush leather booths, suitable for groups, while the front wall and bar are furnished with stools, better for solo or small group seating. The cafe is classy, and the Italian theme is echoed through every small detail. Customers have options as to how they want to enjoy Corso, whether it be a daily caffeine fix, a refuel for shopping, a meeting place, or a date spot. Here, David Abes, Corso's regional director of operations, shares details on the idea behind the concept.

What's the story behind Corso?

Corso started in the Paramount Hotel in New York. The name "Corso" actually comes from this thoroughfare in Rome, but what we really wanted was for it to feel like more of gathering spot. So, when we brought Corso to Atlanta it turned into more of a cafe style from a grab-and-go so that people would be able to enjoy it in more ways than one. As you can see here we've got the coffee, food, and bar component. So yeah, it's just one of those little cafes. We want people to feel like they're in Europe, in Italy, hanging out.

I love how much exposure this place gets from the location and then also being in such a walkable area. It's so easy for people to stop in here while their shopping ...

Exactly. Buy some Louis Vuittons and come here and get some coffee and prosecco.

... espresso to keep them going.

David: You got it. It makes them shop better.

How did you choose this location?

We scouted around throughout Atlanta, and we wanted to have [Corso and LDV Hospitality's forthcoming American Cut Steakhouse] together. We thought with the clientele that would be here and the demographics that this location would be a success. So that's how we chose it.

I'm kind of obsessed with the theme in here.

Yeah, so on that note, the whole restaurant was built in Italy. We broke it down and rebuilt it here. So what you can see here is all Italian leather, the lighting, the back bar. That espresso machine is actually Maserati — costs just about as much as one of their cars. There is no grunge factor here.

I'm impressed — great coffee and food.

Thanks. It all really comes down to the quality. That's what our company is all about. We bake everything fresh in the morning and all throughout the day. Right now you can smell the new croissants coming out of the oven. Same with the sandwiches. We'll put just one or two out. It's interesting because I've had people say, "It doesn't really smell like coffee in here," and they like that. You go to some places and it always smells of that

burnt roast, but here you can smell the fresh pastries and all that coming right out of the oven.

David, what's your favorite thing about Corso?

I think the community. All day different people come in, so you have business people here early in the morning for their meetings, and then you have the people who really set up shop as if this is their office. We had a lady who had five of her meetings here. She was here for, like, four hours, and every 30 minutes it seemed like she had a new person come in. And then around two o'clock people need their caffeine, so we have a lot of traffic in here. It makes it interesting. It's not just a restaurant. You could pop in first thing in the morning for espresso, and then swing by in the afternoon for a snack or grab a drink here in the evening.

It seems a little small. Do you think space will be an issue, especially with people "setting up shop" here as you mentioned?

I think with the nice Atlanta weather when the patio opens up we will have a lot more space. And we're not opposed to people working here.

October 2015 Issue

SCARPETTA BEACH HEATS UP THE

SUMMER MONTAUK SCENE BY SARA VENTIERA

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2015 | 6 HOURS AGO

Tomato Spaghetti Melissa Hom Photography Owned by the same family for more than 60 years, Gurney's Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa (290 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk; 631-668-2345) changed hands last year and has since undergone a massive transformation. LDV Hospitality, the group responsible for the Regent Cocktail Club in Miami and the Meatpacking District's Scarpetta and Barchetta, took over the food and beverage program. LDV brings five new eating and drinking options to the historic hotel. For casual dining, there's the year-round casual American concept, Tillies, featuring a seasonally-driven menu. Italian-inspired Corso Coffee offers an array of grab-and-go snacks as well as artisanal coffees.

The Beach Club at Gurney's serves sandwiches, salads, and special Saturday barbecues on the 1,000 foot private beach. Modeled after its Miami predecessor, which was voted one of the best hotel bars in the world by Tales of the Cocktail, the Regent Cocktail Club brings craft cocktails designed by

famed mixologist and managing partner Julio Cabrera to the mix. The indoor/outdoor bar draws inspiration from Miami circa 1941, but with modern-day DJs and entertainment. "We have 20 different restaurants," says LDV founder John Meadow. "We do all these different things. This is the first opportunity to do it all together. The goal is to guide guests through their entire weekend."

Scarpetta Beach is the resort's flagship dining spot. With panoramic views of the Atlantic, mid-century mod glass-orb light fixtures, patterned rope dividers, and blue velvet banquettes, the space has a cosmopolitan, ocean-meets-city feel. "This was our first time working with Michael Kramer," says Meadow. "I'm a design-freak and I love the design process. He took the urbane New York City sensibility and gave it a sense of place at the beach."

Fortunately, the service stands up to NYC sensibilities, as well. When one of the brand-new chairs gave out under my dinner guest, the staff handled it in an impeccably professional manner. There was no annoying fawning, just a quick and genuine apology, two glasses of champagne, and several dishes to make amends.

Tuna Susci Following photos Sara Ventiera for the Village Voice

The tuna 'susci' ($19) was one. It looks like any ordinary sushi roll; bright slabs of fresh tuna wrapped over marinated vegetables. It's fresh and light, but so much better than you'd expect from first glance; preserved truffles add a deep, earthy component that bring it to another level. Braised short rib of beef ($18) over vegetable and farro risotto was another standout dish — the beef is tender, the risotto is al dente and creamy. It's good. The creamy polenta ($18) that we ordered is better; served with wild mushrooms in a thick, savory sauce, it's luscious with a rich, almost meaty flavor.

We ordered the short rib and bone marrow angolotti ($25) with horseradish, garlic chips, parsley, and parmesan. Much like an Italian-English pub hybrid, the dish is interesting and somewhat unexpected. The spaghetti ($24) looked good, too, with a simple tomato sauce and flecks of fresh basil.

For mains, there's a selection of meat and seafood ranging from organic chicken with spaetzle, spring beans, and fegato jus ($28), seared scallops with peas, morels, and tarragon ($32) to a massive bone in dry-aged ribeye ($49) that could probably serve an entire dinner party. It's served with a seasonal fricassee of vegetables and marbled potatoes.

We ordered branzino ($32) with white asparagus vinaigrette, maitake mushrooms, purslane, and guanciale; a crisp-skinned filet of fish over a creamy white asparagus puree, well-balanced with acid. The kitchen also sent out black cod ($35) in a rich, concentrated tomato broth scented with caramelized fennel. Both fish plates were top-notch and thoughtfully seasoned. "It's still the classic items and culinary team, but it would be crazy not to embrace the seafood and local farms." says Meadow. "We embrace and celebrate that with more seafood and Hamptons produce."

Branzino, white asparagus vinaigrette, maitake mushrooms, purslane, gunaciale

Dessert is just as appealing as the rest of the menu. As suggested by our server, we ordered coconut panna cotta with caramelized pineapple and guava "soup" ($12), served in a large bowl on a puddle of guava gelée. We also had a taste of limoncello semifreddo ($12) with pistachio cake, macerated berries, and basil blackberry sorbet. Other options include a Valrhona chocolate cake with butterscotch and caramel gelato as well as espresso budino with salted caramel, chocolate biscotti, and hazelnut gelato.

Limoncello semifreddo

To pull it all off, LDV imported many staff members from its restaurants in New York City, which definitely plays a large part in the high level of service. "This isn't a popup," says Meadow. "We have a long-term lease for operations."

While the chair-fail could have gone terribly wrong — even if it was rather comical — it did prove the point that these guys know hospitality; they did everything they could to remedy the situation. There's no doubt this will be the Montauk hotspot for the season. And you can bet your ass they've checked every last chair since then.

Scarpetta Beach is open through Labor Day; Corso Coffee, The Regent Cocktail Club, and Tillie's are open year-round.

WHAT TO ORDER AT SCARPETTA BEACH By Gary Walther

Photography by Doug Young | June 26, 2015 | Food & Drink

LDV Hospitality's Scarpetta Beach combines the coastal cuisine of Italy with the East End's nautical spirit.

Branzino with white asparagus vinaigrette, maitake mushrooms, purslane, and guanciale.

The recipe is disarmingly simple: Take Scarpetta, the Meatpacking District Italian restaurant still packing them in

seven years on, and garnish with beach—1,000 private Montauk feet of it, in fact, at the venerable (and long

frowsy) Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa. Scarpetta Beach is part of the transformation of Gurney’s into

a luxury resort, the only one in the Hamptons actually on the beach (and the only one licensed to sell drinks on the

strand, too).

“I knew in two minutes that I wanted this,” says John Meadow, founder of LDV Hospitality, which runs the

Scarpettas in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. “Some deals are just business, but this one is

passion.”

Scarpetta Beach is not literally on the beach, but overlooks the ocean. Meadow and his interior designer, Michael

Kramer of Michael Thomas & Co., wisely kept the interior simple, garnishing the room with the view. The

windows are floor-to-ceiling, and the effect is akin to being on a luxury cruise ship. The effect is even more

pronounced now that the terrace is open: Those eight tables on the rail should be some of the most sought-after in

the Hamptons this summer.

That being said, the room itself is a study in understatement. The wood is recycled paneling from the old hotel

lobby, and the tables are edged in custom-made brass in a stylized four-leaf-clover pattern. There are no

tablecloths in keeping with the Scarpetta ethos: “We were one of the first of The New York Times’s three-stars to

eschew tablecloths,” says Meadow. The chairs have half-slip-over backs in a hopsack weave. Visually, they come

across as white caps, a nice way of referencing the ocean. The only “designer” touches are the overhead light

fixtures, which resemble three-dimensional models of molecules. They worked for me. As do the pure white

macramé screens that fill the large rectangular wall spaces on each side of the central dining room. As so often in

restaurants today, they’re an homage, in this case to the nautical heritage of Montauk.

The restaurant’s dining room.

The room itself is divided into three sections: four rows of tables in the center room with blue button-tufted

banquettes on each side wall; two rows of deuces in the right-hand alley (quieter and with the same view); and a

private dining room to the left. But even well back, as we were, the view exerts its centripetal force. There’s really

not a bad seat in the house.

When it comes to the food, Meadow turns the formula around: Take beach and garnish it with Scarpetta. Indeed,

13 of the 23 dishes on the menu come from the 14th Street restaurant, including the spaghetti, tomato, and basil,

which Frank Bruni, in the 2008 review in The New York Times that gave Scarpetta three stars, wrote stacked up

against any spaghetti al pomodoro he’d had in Italy. Meadow all but dares me to have it, so I do.

The tomatoes are handselected, then pounded. They’re not cooked down, but cooked long “over a pilot light,”

says John Oh, the chef at the Scarpetta on 14th Street who also oversees the kitchen at Scarpetta Beach. There are

a few additives (the basil, red pepper and garlic-infused olive oil, Parmesan, and a touch of salt), but it’s the

tomatoes, or rather their texture, that delights. It’s not a sauce, but a nap, and eloquent in its reticence.

Tagliatelle with lobster, asparagus, and basil bread crumbs.

That same texture is found in the cavatelli, but here there’s more texture: fava-bean rough played off against goat-

cheese smooth, with mint as a background through-note. The black farfalle steps it up a notch in flavor and

texture through a judicious sprinkling of herbed, spicy breadcrumbs.

The appetizer menu runs the gamut from beach-bikini body (raw yellowtail and asparagus soup) to “take all of me”

(creamy polenta, crispy fritto misto, and braised beef short ribs). The fluke crudo (local, of course) is melt-in-

your- mouth (though it needs a tad less salt), and the tuna “susci” (that’s a transliteration into Italian) is amped by

marinating the vegetables and adding preserved truffles, a bit fancy-pants to me. (I’m spartan about sushi.) The

main courses traverse the same spectrum, from black cod to dry-aged rib-eye via organic chicken with spaetzle.

The cod is beautifully cooked, and the caramelized fennel forms a lovely basso continuo to the fish.

Scarpetta Beach comes with a heaping side of outdoor deck and bar space, the spot to delve into the pretty-cool

cocktail list. It’s a place to sport up into beach-dinner dress (a blazer from Ralph Lauren, Kiton, or Tom Ford

would be fine), watch the offshore weather-batics, and savor the chilly exhale of the beach and ocean. 290 Old

Montauk Hwy., Montauk, 668-1771

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July 30, 2008

On Top of Spaghetti By FRANK BRUNI

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ATMOSPHERE A freewheeling bar area leads to a bright, handsomely appointed dining room with a retractable glass roof.

SOUND LEVEL Loud, louder or loudest, depending on the hour and your table.

RECOMMENDED DISHES Pea soup; mozzarella in carozza; polenta with truffled mushrooms; spaghetti with tomato; agnolotti; calamarata pasta with seafood; turbot; black cod; baby goat; baby chicken with liver

404 Washington Ave., Suite 730 - Miami Beach, FL 33139- o.305.438.9200 - info@carmapr.com