Zimmi’s Is a New Bistro That Leans Into Old-World Cooking

The restaurant is on a prime West Village corner. Photo: Jeremy Liebman

Welcome to Grub Street’s 2024 Fall Restaurant Preview. All week, we’re diving into the upcoming openings we’re most excited about.

When Jenni Guizio was looking for a chef to run the kitchen at her new restaurant, she did not expect to be won over by artichoke soup, which is what Maxime Pradié prepared while auditioning for the role. Guizio remembers thinking, “That’s bold.” She ended up taking leftovers home from the meal.

The two, it turned out, wanted the same things. After leaving a position cooking at Lodi in Rockefeller Center, Pradié had decided to seek out an under-50-seat venue, creative control of the menu, and “a very strong front-of-house operating partner.” Guizio began working her way through the restaurant ranks starting at 18, eventually becoming the wine-and-­beverage director of Union Square Hospitality Group. (Rounding out the group are partner Mark Shami and G.M. Cory Holt, who first worked for Guizio at Maialino and will help oversee the wine.)

When Guizio found the West Village space, she decided to name it for Marie ­Zimmermann, a 20th-century queer ­designer known for her jewelry and metalwork and a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement who took over her family’s farm in Pennsylvania. Zimmi’s interior reflects its namesake’s legacy, with Arts and Crafts–era flourishes that reference Zimmerman’s metalwork along with the woodwork of her contemporary, Wharton Esherick. Guizio, who designed the space, has combined antiques with pieces she commissioned from local artisans, like the Pennsylvania-based glass blower who produced their light fixtures. “It’s all very craft-based,” she says.

Guizio and Pradié inside the space that will become Zimmi's. Jeremy Liebman.

Guizio and Pradié inside the space that will become Zimmi's. Jeremy Liebman.

The New York–born Pradié, a partner in the restaurant, uses the word craft to describe his kitchen ethos as well. His inspiration is his grandmother, an Italian-born French woman who exposed him to an amalgam of regional cuisines — Lombardy in northern Italy, Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France, and Provence in the southeast of that country. He summarizes the style with the French phrase “comme dans l’arrière pays,” or “like in the old country,” which here in New York City he interprets as “time-intensive, craft-based, regionally specific French dishes with a little bit of Italy peppered in by way of Provence and a few recognizable classics.” He says the menu may include trout mi-cuit with beans, chanterelles, and clams; lamb stew with capers, olives, and summer savory; stuffed Bang Island mussels with costata romanesco squash and saffron; or bottarga on rye toast with goat’s butter.

Although the line-up will change with the season, Pradié plans to keep a Niçoise pissadalière, which he prepared for Guizio during that initial tasting, on the menu permanently and says there will always be some pasta. For that trial meal, he also served a saffron-and-yellow-Chartreuse soufflé that may turn up from time to time, and which will be made by pastry chef Harper Zapf, whom Pradié met in 2022 during a San Francisco residency at the restaurant Lord Stanley.

Zapf will introduce diners to a fougasse sucrée — a sweet brioche scented with orange-blossom water — from the medieval Southern French town of Aigues-Mortes, as well as chocolat pavé, inspired by Le Baratin in Paris, that’s ringed by a pool of crème anglaise; a mille-feuille with fig leaf and honey; and an ice cream infused with so much vanilla that it achieves a surprising, fittingly rustic shade of gray.