A Beloved Italian Restaurant Returns to Its West Village Roots

1. It’s a worker-owned success story.

The original Dell’anima was founded in 2007 by August Cardona, Joe Campanale (Fausto), and Gabe and Katherine Thompson, quickly becoming a West Village staple known for its handcrafted pastas and a solid beverage program. The group eventually expanded to be a part of the Epicurean Group, opening L’Artusi, B’Artusi, Anfora, and Via Porta.

When Dell’anima’s lease on 8th Avenue expired in late 2018, three longtime employees were given the chance to buy the restaurant from the founders. Andrew Whitney, Danir Rincon, and Jacob Cohen — all of whom had worked there for more than a decade — seized the opportunity, and moved Dell’anima to Gotham West Market in Hell’s Kitchen.

“This is the story of workers who were able to buy the restaurant where they worked,” says Whitney, who joined Dell’anima as a pasta cook in 2008, and rose through the ranks to become executive chef under the mentorship of Gabe Thompson. “Many people dream of doing this one day, and this was my dream.”

2. They’ve proven themselves in Hell’s Kitchen.

After relocating to Gotham West Market, the trio wanted to recreate the intimate dell’anima experience, despite being in a more casual food hall setting. They centered the new location around an 18-seat chef’s counter as a nod to the original.

Cohen recalls one particular evening, three months into opening, when the chef’s counter was packed and buzzing. “Andrew [Whitney] told me to run downstairs to get extra produce. As I ran down, I realized that the rest of the market had completely closed. It was 11 o’clock, but we were in our own bubble,” he explains. “At Gotham [West Market], we showed them that it didn’t have to be [filled with] startups figuring their concepts out. We could really create a dining experience for everybody — from our regulars to tourists going to the Intrepid Museum or Broadway for a special night out.”

When Gotham West Market announced plans to close in late 2024, the stars aligned. The trio found a space on Cornelia Street in the heart of the West Village, which previously housed Figure Eight and, before that, the iconic Pearl Oyster Bar.

3. The soulful and simple food remains unchanged.

Whitney, who is classically trained in French cuisine, says he found his calling in Italian food. His approach stems from childhood lessons with his grandmother in Minnesota. “It was always a punishment to weed grandma’s garden,” he shares. “Soon, she realized I was getting in trouble just to help her, and one day she said to me, ‘Now I can teach you how to cook food, how to appreciate what comes from the earth.’”

Staying true to its name — Dell’anima means “of the soul” — the food here is simple and unpretentious. Whitney focuses on letting three to five ingredients bring out most of the flavors for each dish. His tagliatelle alla bolognese uses pork, veal, beef ,and brown cremini mushrooms, to which he adds porcini powder and tomato powder instead of tomatoes to concentrate the sweetness. For his rack of lamb, he simply sears the meat and then rubs it in a pistachio and herb crust. Most produce comes from Union Square Greenmarket, and Whitney creates specials year-round, particularly from spring to fall when vegetables are abundant.

4. New dishes will complement the all-time classics.

The menu remains classically sectioned — antipasti, insalate, primi, and secondi (split between carne and pesce) — and regulars will be delighted to find their favorites unchanged.

The charred octopus, created by opening chef-partner Gabe Thompson, has been a mainstay since day one. Whitney cooks 50 pounds at a time, slowly braising the octopus in red wine, citrus, and spices, for five hours. The tentacles are seared to order in a skillet and served over a salad of rice beans, chorizo, and chicories. “We have guests travel from out of state just to have our octopus,” Rincon notes proudly.

Another signature is the bone marrow with testa (pig’s head), a dish that came to Whitney in a dream. It’s a four-to-five-day labor of love: pig’s head is brined, braised, and pureed with caramelized onion, while bone marrow is roasted and pureed with confit garlic. The mixture is formed into a pâté, cooled, and pushed back into the original bone, topped with breadcrumbs and served with pickled red onion and charred spring onion.

The tajarin alla carbonara puts a Dell’anima spin on the classic, using speck instead of traditional guanciale and arriving tableside with a fresh egg yolk in its center for guests to mix themselves — a signature DIY moment.

With summer around the corner, Whitney is also adding new dishes to marry with the classics: cucumber salad with tzatziki, red snapper with spring onion agrodolce, broccoli rabe with garlic and chiles, and garganelli with Peekytoe crab and roasted squash.

5. The bar program expands beyond Italy.

For Rincon, the general manager and beverage director, it’s all about mixing classics with updates that reflect the current trends. The backbone of Dell’anima’s wine list has been driven by Italian wines, but this time, he’s adding selections from France, the U.S., and low-intervention wines as well.

Cocktail-wise, classics that have traveled with them since the early days will remain on the menu, such as the famous roasted orange Negroni sbagliato and Blame it on the Aperol (gin, aperol, lemon, and club soda). Rincon created a frozen version of the latter at Gotham West Market named Sunkissed Spritz that proved very popular.

6. The space balances intimacy with versatility.

The 52-seat Cornelia Street location only required some cosmetic renovations, completed in six weeks. Working with Alice Tai of AWT Architect and Rachel Robinson of Dunham Robinson, the team created three distinct seating areas: cantilevered cocktail tables by the window, a main dining room that features a 12-seat walnut bar and tile-wrapped marble tables with brick red chairs, and a back section that can be turned into a private dining room for up to 12 guests.

“We didn’t have anything to do with the original design, the old space was all black and white,” Whitney explains. “But now that it’s ours, we wanted to put our two cents in and have more color.” They kept the exposed brick wall, added dark green banquettes, and painted the wall by the semi-open kitchen red, so that the focal point will be on Whitney, who will be at the pass overlooking the dining room. The fluted wall texture is a nod to dell’ anima’s original plaster wall.

“This place can very well be a first date spot, where you can sit at the bar, enjoy a glass of wine, or have a group of 10 to 12 people in the back enjoying themselves,” describes Whitney. The soundtrack ranges from Led Zeppelin to Wu-Tang Clan, with some Spanish music mixed in.

7. It’s a true homecoming.

“People have missed us here in the West Village,” Rincon concludes. “They used to travel from this side of town all the way to Hell’s Kitchen.”

“We always wanted to get back to being a five-minute walk rather than a 20-minute taxi ride to get to us,” Cohen adds.

Once they’re settled in, the team plans to expand beyond dinner service with late-night bar snacks from midnight to 1 a.m. for the neighborhood’s night owls and, down the line, brunch on the weekends.

But for now, it’s about getting back to what they do best, in the West Village, where they belong.

Dell’anima is open daily starting at 5 p.m., closing at 11 p.m. on Sunday through Tuesday, midnight on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.