For New Yorkers who have long dreamed of eating at Buenos Aires’s legendary Don Julio without booking a 10-hour flight, that trip just got a lot shorter.
Graciela, the first U.S. restaurant from acclaimed Argentine restaurateur Pablo Rivero, opened Tuesday in the West Village, bringing the chef’s famed live-fire cooking to the corner of Greenwich Avenue and Bank Street. It’s Rivero’s first restaurant outside Argentina, where his Michelin-starred Don Julio is now one of the world’s most decorated steakhouses, earning a place on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and attracting everyone from devoted food travelers to Lionel Messi.
But don’t mistake Graciela for just another steakhouse. Named after Rivero’s mother, the 120-seat restaurant draws inspiration from Argentine bodegón, the neighborhood taverns that mix Italian and Spanish influences with Argentina’s culinary traditions. The menu has no shortage of expertly grilled beef, but there are also plenty of vegetables, seafood, and housemade charcuterie.
The restaurant’s centerpiece is a custom Argentine parrilla and Spanish Josper oven stretching more than 10 feet across one side of the dining room. The grill, believed to be among the largest in New York City, burns imported quebracho blanco charcoal from Argentina…