Former Union Square Hospitality Star Chef Debuts a Throwback European Restaurant

Frankies 570 Spuntino is now Anton’s, a throwback European restaurant in the West Village that honors old New York in both its food and decor.

Anton’s — located at 570 Hudson Street at West 11th Street — comes from Nick Anderer, the chef known for opening Union Square Hospitality Group’s Italian restaurants Marta and Maialino. That Italian training will peek through here in several pasta dishes labeled as “macaroni” on the menu. There’s a take on bucatini amatriciana that uses bacon made by East Village Ukrainian butcher J. Baczynski, as well as linguini with clams, spinach ravioli, and angel hair francese.

But the rest of the menu leans into the larger European side of things. Anderer spent a lot of time researching old recipes and menus and working on his interpretation of them. A cream-free creamed spinach, for instance, is a take on a recipe from Charles Ranhofer’s cookbook The Epicurean, which features a spinach dish made with veal veloute. “I just thought that sounded cool, but I wanted to do a lighter version of it,” Anderer says. At Anton’s, Anderer makes the dish with mushroom veloute.

He decided to do this old-school-style restaurant after learning that a member of his family was once a butcher and that his family also once owned an oyster house.

Other menu sections include shellfish (lobster salad, raw oysters), salads and vegetables (autumn succotash, chicory salad), fish and meat (grilled pork rib chop with apple sauce, roast chicken), and cheese. The full menu is below.

Giada Paoloni/Anton’s [Official Photo]

Drinks and decor are the domain of general manager and beverage director Natalie Johnson, who worked at Loring Place and Marta. She put together a menu that focuses on classic cocktails but updated for modern-day service. Martinis and manhattans are pre-batched and kept frozen to lend a different texture and ice-cold temperature. A 500-plus wine bottle list runs the gamut of prices and sourcing, with a by-the-glass list featuring 22 options.

Those who went to Frankies 570 Spuntino will recognize Anton’s, which hasn’t changed the space all that much except to lean even more into the dark wood, old feel of the place. They added still life paintings and cedar and moss sconces, and a vintage chandelier now hangs over one table with glass lanterns over the bar.

The owners of Frankies 570 are silent partners in Anton’s. Anderer partnered with the Franks after he approached them asking for help finding a space in Brooklyn. That’s when they offered him the West Village space; they have a stake but are letting Anderer’s vision take control.

“This is an idea I’ve been working in my head for the past four years — I thought it would be super cool to have an old-style New York restaurant that was relevant for today,” Anderer says. “Not to create some sort of kitschy period piece, but a restaurant for a neighborhood in modern day New York that captures the essence and vibe of some of these old New York bars and eateries.”

Old-school is very in right now in New York City, with several recent openings that pull from eras gone by. There’s Red Hook Tavern that pays homage to NYC haunts like Peter Luger’s and McSorley’s, while Thomas Keller’s TAK Room and Major Food Group’s the Grill hark back to the extravagance of the ’50s. Now Anton’s joins the pack.

Anton’s is open for dinner Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday until midnight, and for lunch on Friday at noon and brunch on the weekends at 11 a.m. Eventually lunch will be offered daily.