Five Things to Know About Il Totano

1. The pair is a match made in restaurant heaven.

Shapiro and Dieterle met several years ago, when Dieterle started consulting after closing his New York City restaurants, Kin Shop and Perilla in 2015. They talked about doing a spot together then, but nothing materialized until Il Totano.

“I was looking to get back into the game and open a seafood-focused, Southern Italian restaurant. We got connected [again] through a mutual friend and hit it off immediately,” Dieterle says.

So far, things have gone well.

“It’s been amazing to work with Harold,” Shapiro says. “He’s like the yin to my yang, the co-captain I’ve been searching for, for a really long time. We’re just really, really excited to get to work together and to bring our baby to the world.”

2. This spot marks Dieterle’s return to the kitchen after nearly a decade.

Dieterle rose to culinary fame when he became the first-ever winner of the now beloved cooking show, “Top Chef.” Following that success, he opened three New York City restaurants: Kin Shop, Perilla, and The Marrow, all of which had closed by 2015.

Now, after almost 10 years out of the game in the city, he’s back. He dabbled for a while in consulting, helping to open the now-closed Ten Hope in Williamsburg in 2019, and even in cannabis edibles, but says that everything ended up boring him.

“I decided that I wanted to get back into the kitchen doing something that was my own, that I felt passionate about, and that I was excited about,” Dieterle says, adding that he’s glad to have Shapiro as a partner as he eases back into the game.

Even without a pandemic, a lot can change in an industry in 10 years, he admits.

“Everything costs twice as much. It’s twice as challenging just to make anything happen. That’s been my experience,” Dieterle says. “It’s a pretty different world, post pandemic.”

3. Expect lots of seafood — and lots of technique.

“I’m an avid fisherman. I did a lot of fishing during the pandemic,” Dieterle says. He also learned how to dry-age fish, a technique that he’ll be bringing to the kitchen of Il Totano.

The menu begins with a variety of different crudo preparations, like a diver sea scallop with pickled ramp acqua pazza, a dry-aged kampachi with spicy passion fruit colatura, and dry-aged bluefin tuna with fried capers and caponata.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about the passion fruit one,” Shapiro said.

The dry-aging room will be located near the back of the restaurant, Dieterle says, and guests will be able to see inside to look at the fish in progress.

Then, there are antipasti in the form of crispy calamari salad and grilled royal red shrimp. The pastas are sure to be a crowd favorite, as Dieterle is reviving the dish he was perhaps most known for: spicy duck meatballs. Here, they’re served with mint cavatelli, water spinach, and quail eggs.

Also on offer is a Castelvetrano olive bread, a whole dry-aged branzino, and Sicilian-style green beans.

4. The wines will lean Italian.

“Cocktails are king right now,” notes Shapiro, and that’s certainly the case at Il Totano.

There are variations on classics, like the Alpine G&T with foraged aquavit and basil, plus bright choices like the sbagliato bianco with cucumber.

“We have a whole spritz and aperitivi section that is just the perfect way to start your meal and get you into that ‘vacation mode,’” Shapiro says.

The wine list leans, unsurprisingly, toward Italian varietals and is on the smaller side for now, but do expect some surprises.

“We all love grüner, it’s the favorite wine of all of us. We’ll have a few delicious grüner selections,” Shapiro says.

5. Don’t let the address fool you — it’s a whole new space.

When the time came to find a location for the space, Shapiro knew just the one. Flex Mussels had been in that West Village location for 13 years, and she felt that it was time to focus more on the larger location of Flex Mussels on the Upper East Side.

“It felt like it was time for a change on 13th Street. It was pretty perfect when we were really connected. We were both looking for the exact same thing,” Shapiro says.

Those who once visited the space when it was Flex may not recognize much; the interior has undergone a complete redesign.

“The bathrooms are in the same place, but that’s pretty much [all that stayed the same],” Shapiro says with a laugh.

It was designed to make you feel as though you’re on a coastal Italian yacht, Shapiro adds.
“There’s a lot of high-gloss mahogany wood finishes everywhere, really fun yellow banquettes near the bar. It’s meant to look like those Italian beach umbrellas,” she notes.

Six-foot-tall chandeliers and tri-color banquettes in the back round out the look.

“Our big thing is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We wanted it to be whimsical and to play with what we do. It should bring a smile to your face — the intention was to make you feel like you were escaping for the evening and having a great time,” Shapiro says.

Il Totano is open Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m. Eventually, they also plan to open for brunch.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.