Rosina’s opens doors in Greenwich
GREENWICH — The new Rosina’s Restaurant & Bar, which opened quietly about two weeks ago, has deep roots in the area.
Co-founders Coby Blount and Jared Falco met and became friends while working for the Fortina restaurants in Stamford and Westchester County. Falco previously worked in Rosina’s Mill Street space in one of its previous iterations as Lolita Cucina & Tequila Bar. And the Italian eatery is named for Rosina, late mother of their restaurant partner Frank Carpenteri, a native of Calabria who lived in nearby Port Chester, N.Y., for several decades.
“We’ve been trying to get something off the ground for basically the last five years,” Blount said. “We knew we wanted to do something in or around Greenwich.”
It took a while, but Blount and Falco finally settled on the 100-seat space that most recently housed Mill Street Bar & Table. They opened without fanfare on Aug. 10, offering a menu of Italian specialties: fresh pastas, pizzas, appetizers and comforting entrees like veal Milanese and dry-aged rib-eye steak.
Blount and Falco said they aim to create a “fun, inclusive experience” with the menu. They’d always envisioned guests coming in groups, ordering multiple plates and dining
family style. Salads, like a classic Caesar and arugula with hazelnuts, are designed in larger portions intended for sharing, as are appetizers like arancini and meatballs. Other starters include a popular octopus and potato plate with pimenton and lemon aioli, a chicken cutlet with lemon and Parmesan, and broccolini with Calabrian chile and garlic.
“It’s the kind of food that we like people to congregate around and share and talk about,” Blount said.
“We were very thoughtful with these dishes,” Falco said, noting he uses top-quality beef, pork and veal for the meatballs and nduja, a spreadable pork sausage from Calabria, in the arancini with pecorino cream sauce.
Pastas have been an early favorite, the partners said, with a handful of varieties made in house like pappardelle, tagliatelle and filled pastas like agnolotti. Others are custom-made for the restaurant by Dante’s Pasta Shop in Yonkers, N.Y. Rosina’s opening menu offers cacio e pepe with bucatini, spinach tortellini with mascarpone and brown butter, lasagna verde and rigatoni with braised pork and escarole.
A veal Milanese entree is served with mozzarella di bufala, arugula and tomato, and branzino is prepared with peas, spinach, cippollini onion and black truffle. Rosina’s “chicken scarp” is also a top seller, a take on chicken scarpariello with hot peppers, sweet sausage and crispy potato.
Blount is excited about Rosina’s beverage program, led by Juan Meyer, a bar professional with extensive experience in Fairfield and Westchester counties. Cocktails are largely riffs on Italian classics, featuring plenty of appearances by Campari, prosecco and assorted vermouths. But there’s also a nod to Blount’s dachshund, Chiquita, a daiquiri with banana rum and banana puree.
With two cold-press juicers behind the bar, the team crafts drinks like a classic Garibaldi with “fluffy” fresh-squeezed orange juice and Campari, and the Rico Tubbs, with squeezed-to-order grapefruit juice, salted grapefruit syrup and Casamigos tequila.
Meyer even hand-cuts ice cubes for the specialty drinks with a band saw, Blount said: “It’s a labor of love for him, for sure.”
“What we feel we’ve been able to curate here is a very creative space for people as well,” Falco said. “Between that and pasta being made by hand, fresh dough for pizzas — there’s a lot of passion behind what we’re doing here.”
The restaurant seats about 100 guests inside and 35 on an outdoor patio, with a 12-seat bar. Blount said he’s spent a lot of time creating a “fun, familial atmosphere,” complete with a playlist he designed himself.
“We want you to have fun when you come here,” he said. “We take a lot of pride in curating the kind of vibe and ambiance that’s fun, and makes you feel good.”
Rosina’s interior decor also features old photos of its namesake, Rosina Carpenteri, his fiancee’s grandmother, who “loved to garden and cook for her kids and family,” Blount said. Rosina passed away several months before the restaurant’s opening, but the menu bears one of her specialties: crispy potatoes.
Rosina’s Restaurant & Bar, at 230 Mill St. in Greenwich, is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. Blount and Falco plan to add weekend brunch and lunch hours in the fall. 203-681-2376, rosinasrestaurant.com.