Piccolo Morini reborn in Soho: grandma's living room restyled by her cool grandchild

Osteria Morini opened in Soho in 2010 under chef Michael White and became a constant of New York dining for more than a decade, which made Altamarea Group's announcement of a June 1, 2024 closing a surprise to regulars. The group said it would relocate and refresh the favorite, and that promise became Piccolo Morini, opened in June 2026 a short walk from the original address.

Nusla Design's Alsun Keogh led the interiors with one concept: an Italian grandmother's living room reimagined by her cool grandchild. 'We didn't erase the old identity to create the new one,' she says. 'We literally layered the new generation onto it.' That meant keeping the solid-wood butcher-block tables, restored multicolored trattoria chairs, vintage mirrors and Il Fanale Murano-shade lighting from the original — then throwing out the traditional rules for using them.

The familiar pieces now sit against oxblood walls, a dark ceiling, forest-green banquettes, linen café curtains, raw concrete, contemporary art and unexpected patterns. A hutch mixes an old Morini wine-cork bucket with antique books, family silver, vintage Italian signs, a new lamp, a Le Creuset pot and a live plant, while an intentionally unstructured gallery wall brings frames, photographs, maps, needlepoint and decorative plates together without the formality of a grid.

The clearest statement of the generational shift is the sign: Morini remains in the original large orange letters, with Piccolo added above in loose yellow neon. 'Piccolo is lighter and cheekier, almost as though someone came along afterward and wrote their name above it,' Keogh says. 'In a way, that's the entire project in two typefaces.' Inside, a warm dining room and a livelier neighborhood bar let one concept serve different kinds of evenings.