Sempre Oggi – “always today” – opened in mid-March on the Upper West Side, at 164 W. 75th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue. The Italian restaurant amps up simple dishes like Castelfranco served with pasta filata sliced from the teardrop-shaped caciocavallo; or a fava puree with Swiss chard, accented by sofrito.
The restaurant comes from Robert Guarino: He’s behind, among others, Hell’s Kitchen’s Marseille and Nizza, as well as 5 Napkin Burger, which has multiple locations. Guarino hired Phillip Basone to oversee the kitchen, former executive chef of Jonathan Waxman’s Barbuto in the West Village, and chef de cuisine of Brooklyn’s well-regarded Les Crocodile. Basone steers a vegetable focused menu, with pastas made in-house, and a handful of mains, in what had been ‘Cesca for nearly 20 years.
