#Manhattan rooftop restaurant has NYC’s only greenhouse dining
“#Manhattan rooftop restaurant has NYC’s only greenhouse dining”
July 30, 2020 | 12:01am | Updated July 30, 2020 | 12:03am
Michele and Anisa Iuliano planned to open a combination pasta and beer garden on the rooftop of their Financial District restaurant, Gnoccheria, in April.
“That was my husband’s dream. And then COVID hit,” Anisa told The Post.
“We were frustrated, we were scared,” she said. The pandemic temporarily shut down their plans — and their seven restaurants in the city. “We were worried, how are we going to make the rooftop work?”
But this spring, while the couple was isolating in their New Jersey home, a targeted ad on social media became a sign: “There was a push ad that popped up for a greenhouse,” Anisa recalled. She realized they could use the $800 structures to safely distance customers.
Her husband wasn’t on board at first. After some quarreling, “He said, ‘You know what, I think that it will work.’ I said ‘Too late, I already ordered five,’” Anisa said.
In July, the pair finally opened up their rooftop, at 100 Broad St., and called it Ampia, meaning “large space” in Italian. Five greenhouses seat two people each, while a sixth can hold as many as eight guests. Tables are already booked up three weeks in advance.
The safety precautions didn’t stop with the innovative enclosures. The Iulianos have almost every surface of Ampia coated with Purity Solution, an EPA-approved sanitizing spray that kills bacteria for three months. As you walk in, a face-scanner takes your temperature and reminds you to put a mask on. A sanitizing mat wipes the soles of customers’ shoes for germs, and a strobe light cleans the air.
Each table is outfitted with hand sanitizer and during a shift, staff “teams” — a server, a busser, a bartender — only work together, to reduce exposure.
“I went a little overboard, but I needed to,” said Anisa. “I need people to come here and enjoy the experience of being on our rooftop. I don’t want them to think about safety.”
While she retooled the decor and dealt with safety, Michele was in the kitchen, devising a new menu. “He came up with this concept of seafood paninis. They’re big in Italy but not in New York,” Anisa explained.
So far, the polipo — grilled octopus with pesto, tomato and burrata mozzarella cheese ($20) — is a big hit, as are classic offering such as scallops with pancetta and an artichoke puree ($18), Margherita pizza and, of course, gnocchi.
Customer Kevin Pritchard and his wife recently dined on the Ampia roof, their first time eating out since February. “I wanted our first dining experience out to be something really really unique to mark the occasion of, hopefully, things getting better,” he told The Post.
“It was very surprising, very intimate,” the Astoria resident said of the greenhouses. “And the food was delicious.”
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