RAFELE RYE, NOW OPEN FOR DINNER. 26 PURCHASE STREET. RYE, NY 10580-3003. Ph: 914-481-8417
After six successful years at Rafele Ristorante, his signature restaurant in the West Village, Naples-born chef Raffaele Ronca is excited to debut Rafele's first sister restaurant, Rafele Rye, in the charming Westchester County village of Rye.
This new venture brings together Raffaele, who grew up in a family of butchers and has won accolades for his cooking from the James Beard Foundation and Food + Wine magazine, and Ann Mara Cacase, an owner of the New York Giants, who grew up in Rye and who, along with her 10 brothers and sisters, inherited ownership of the team from their parents, the late Wellington and Ann Mara.
The featured cuisine combines classic Italian dishes with the chef's native Neapolitan influence, and the space, previously a Chinese restaurant, has been renovated to reveal much of its original charming brickwork. Warm reclaimed woods that are a fixture at the original Rafele show up here, too, in the form of ceiling beams and tables made of recycled wood from old houses and farms in the Rye area. Handsome chandeliers in the dining room and over the main bar add an amber glow to the ambience.
Team Rafele appreciates the warm welcome to the community and looks forward to bringing a taste of Naples, Italy to Westchester County.