Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar Opens

Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar, a 5,000-square-foot causal Italian restaurant and bar, has opened at the Mondrian SoHo.

Headed by executive chef Victor LaPlaca, a Sicilian native, Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar's food and ambience take their inspiration from the Amalfi Coast, Italian Riviera and Sicily.

The design is based on Florence's Boboli Gardens and private Italian coastal estates. Housed in a greenhouse, the restaurant features an iron-framed entrance with wooden benches and a porch swing. Inside, chandeliers and a glass sculpture by Beth Lipman are suspended over the dining room's wooden communal tables.

The bar serves 36 wines by the glass and 100 bottles from Italy, Sicily, Greece, Spain and Southern France. Traditional Mediterranean cocktails like sweet vermouth on draft and signature cocktails like frizzante di Ciliegie with Prosecco, Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal, Luxardo Maraschino liquer, fresh cherries and lemon are on offer from the 11-seat zinc bar.

Isola's regional Italian menu and contemporary crudo offerings feature market-fresh and locally sourced ingredients, including LaPlaca's signature selection of crudos, where he pairs the freshest fish available with olive oils, salts, and seasonal fruits and citrus.

The crudo menu includes tuna with white balsamic, jalapeno, watermelon and pine nuts, snapper with cantaloupe, Fuji apple, and pickled red chile, and Hamachi with salsa verde, avocado and crispy shallots.

The trattoria menu includes cuscinetto with goat cheese and black olive, baby heirloom tomatoes and pint, Burrato pizza with squash blossom pesto and roasted tomato, and dry-aged maremma steak on the bone with creamy mushroom polenta and truffled lardo.

Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Lauren Mack is the Travel Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @lmack.