Stephen Starr’s splashiest Philly restaurant since Parc will have dishes designed by a highly acclaimed NY chef
Award-winning chef Mark Ladner has been testing hundreds of dishes for Stephen Starr's forthcoming Borromini on Rittenhouse Square. Ladner's next move is Babbo in New York, which Starr is buying.
Borromini, Stephen Starr’s highly anticipated forthcoming Italian restaurant — or, as some describe it, “Italian Parc” — is taking shape in the former Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Walnut Street side of Rittenhouse Square. Though the opening is months off, menu development is well underway, under the direction of one of the most well-regarded Italian chefs working in the United States.
Mark Ladner, who won four stars from the New York Times for his work a decade ago at Del Posto — one of just seven restaurants in the city to hold the distinction at the time, and the first Italian restaurant to do so in more than three decades — along with a Michelin star and a James Beard award, has been creating recipes for Borromini with another consulting chef, Chris Jaeckle, in various Starr kitchens during off-hours.
Ladner’s work on Borromini is nearly done, as he is preparing for his next stop: executive chef at the luxe Babbo in New York, which Starr is purchasing from Joe Bastianich, along with its more casual sibling, Lupa. This move will bring Ladner full circle, as he was on Babbo’s opening team in 1998. Bastianich and then-partner, chef Mario Batali, were behind Babbo and Del Posto before Batali gave up his stake in the business amid sexual-misconduct allegations. Del Posto closed in 2021.
Starr is known for his obsession with menu testing. For Borromini, “we probably made at least 50 pastas,” Ladner said, calling up notes on his iPhone. “This list I’m looking at right now has 191 items on it,” he said. “I’ve never heard of anything like this in my life.”
Ladner is particularly proud of several dishes that he expects to make Borromini’s menu of 30 or so items, such as “a really rich and decadent version of carbonara” as well as paccheri with sea bass ragout.
Julian Baker, a Starr veteran who was executive chef at the posh brasserie Le Zoo in Miami, will be Borromini’s executive chef. The restaurant’s projected opening, initially penciled in as “spring,” is unknown.