Chef Anthony Ricco grew up in Greenpoint, back when this whole stretch of Brooklyn waterfront was pretty much an industrial wasteland, home to a few legendary DIY venues and a playground for graffiti writers and street artists.
Things, to say the least, have changed around these parts since then.
“It’s wild. It’s ridiculous,” Ricco told BKMAG as we chatted in the leafy courtyard of the William Vale Hotel on Kent Avenue. “When I first saw this building coming up I was like ‘we don’t need this shit in this neighborhood.’”
Ah, but as we all know, one of the defining characteristics of New York City is constant change—fighting it is fruitless. And so, after Ricco spent more than a decade cooking in the Jean Georges group—including a ten-year stint as executive chef of Spice Market—he wound up back in the old neighborhood at, yup, the William Vale, running the kitchen at the hotel’s fancy-pants restaurant Leuca and, as of a month ago, launching the terrific and refreshingly playful Little Fino, which has taken over both the inside lobby bar and the outdoor tables in the spacious courtyard…