The Americano’s new menu is chef Scott Conant’s return to inspiration

It’s now one of four restaurants he still operates, including Cellaio Steak in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the Kitchen at Resorts World Hudson Valley in Newburgh, New York, and Leola, an Italian eatery set to debut at the Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.

But it took a fire in the restaurant’s kitchen to make Conant realize he’d been serving a lukewarm version of himself, at least when it came to The Americano’s menu, he said.

The restaurant’s name came from his early years as a young cook when his Italian colleagues would refer to him simply as the “Americano.” The title reminds him now of the person he used to be — “that young cook who is kind of headstrong and hungry and hyper-focused,” he said. “That’s who I was at that age.”

But after looking at his menu through critical eyes, he found it no longer reflected that passionate cook.

He insisted that the hotel’s management team allow him to rework the menu into something he could be proud of. He decided to tap into the food that excited him — Italian cuisine that emphasizes local, seasonal ingredients and a “full extraction of flavors.”

“What we’ve come up with is something that’s soulful and heartfelt and sincere and really, more than anything else, authentic to me and my vision of food,” he said.

The new menu, and The Americano’s quiet rebrand, officially took effect Aug. 27. Some of the same dishes remain, like Conant’s favorite gnocchi al pomodoro, but many were overhauled.

Credit: Courtesy of Ken Goodman

Credit: Courtesy of Ken Goodman

The new menu is built around more local flavors, ingredients and purveyors, he said, like a fritto misto that incorporates pickled okra and green tomatoes alongside fried rock shrimp, calamari, local flounder and cherry peppers.

There’s a barbecued, almost New Orleans-style shrimp, Conant said, and it’s layered over whipped potatoes with specks of caviar folded inside — it’s a “balance of honesty and elegance,” he said.

The grilled quail is glazed with garum (a fermented fish sauce) and local honey and paired with creamy polenta and peaches stewed in Calabrian chilis.

The farro and vegetable risotto is a Genovese-style risotto topped with beef cheeks braised in caramelized onions and finished with a topping of horseradish agliata.

“I think that people can read this menu and say, ‘I feel like this food is familiar to me, but yet it’s all new at the same time,’” Conant said.

The dining room, which wasn’t affected by the fire, remains the same with its dark upholstery, gold accents and the eye-catching white sculpture in the middle of the room.

The hospitality group now managing the restaurant is new, however.

Credit: Courtesy of Ken Goodman

Credit: Courtesy of Ken Goodman

Conant tapped Lowder-Tascarella Hospitality to manage all of his restaurants. The group was founded by Jeffrey Tascarella and Christopher Lowder, the former of whom helped run Eleven Madison Park and was the opening general manager at Conant’s Scarpetta.

“I honestly have not been as excited about this restaurant as I am right now,” Conant said.