A new modern comfort food restaurant and bar, Daphne’s, is coming to Bed-Stuy this winter, co-owner Gary Fishkop confirms.
Having only signed the lease two months ago and getting a later start than hoped, he says its menu and design is still in the very early planning stages. However it is slated to be a non-traditional Italian restaurant offering seasonal comfort food like a French dip sandwich and homemade pastas, the latter of which will remain on the menu year-round. The kitchen will be helmed by chef Vincent Caravelli who has worked at the Met Dining Room and the Farm on Adderley. While Cacici’s and Caravelli’s Italian heritage will influence the menu, Fishkop says Daphne’s will not only offer Italian cuisine.
“We don’t want to be a traditional Italian restaurant because we want the flexibility to do other stuff,” he tells What Now New York. “We don’t want to play it safe and keep it minimalist like so many spaces are doing. We’re trying to make it fun.”
Cacici and Fishkop are longtime friends who both own restaurants in Bushwick. Fishkop is the owner of Little Mo while Cacici is the owner of Carmenta’s, as well as Chino Grande and Llama Inn in Williamsburg. Cacici’s most recent endeavor is the new-wave slice shop Decades Pizza in Ridgewood, which launched earlier this year.
“It’s a passion project that we’ve wanted to do for a while,” Fishkop says about Daphne’s. “I live two blocks away, so it’s super personal to me.”
