Overseen by Chef Melissa Rodriguez, Al Coro will occupy the soaring restaurant on the corner of 16th Street and Tenth Avenue. Al Coro will serve a combination of simple (regional, traditional) preparations of Italian food and more imaginative, elegantly-plated dishes of Chef Rodriguez’s design. Every meal at Al Coro will start with a giant, table-filling spread of antipasti served in mismatched bowls and platters that blanket the table. Following starters, we’ll offer more delicate, individually-plated pastas and proteins. All of the food will be served the way it might be at the fancy home of a friend who was cooking for you. Some pastas and proteins will be served communally; others will be presented then plated in the kitchen. ------ Jeff Katz and James Kent were introduced by a mutual friend in late 2017. They gambled on each other and partnered to open a pair of restaurants and a cocktail bar in the landmark Art Deco building at 70 Pine Street in Manhattan’s Financial District. Crown Shy, the first of those restaurants, opened in March of 2019 and earned a Michelin star less than a year later. After many months of pandemic-related delays, the duo opened SAGA and Overstory in the building’s tiered spire. In the summer of 2021, Kent and Katz partnered with Melissa Rodriguez (former Executive Chef of Del Posto) to take over the restaurant space at 85 Tenth Avenue. In early 2022, they plan to open three concepts there: a fine-dining Italian restaurant, a pizza restaurant, and a cocktail bar.