Danny Meyer Names New Gramercy Park Hotel Restaurant — After Himself
Photo: Patrick McMullan
One of the fall’s most anticipated openings has just been christened. Danny Meyer’s evocation of a Roman trattoria, to open in November at the Gramercy Park Hotel, will be called Maialino, which means “little pig.” And it means a little something more personal to Meyer, who once spent time working as a tour guide for his father’s company in Rome, where his Italian co-workers took to calling the boss’s son “Meyerino,” as in “little Meyer.” As obsessed with food then as he is now, Meyer had a favorite pork dish, the maialino, which he couldn’t get enough of at the local trattorias. Soon, Meyerino got a new, even better, nickname — yes, “Maialino” — that reflected his appetite rather than his heritage and lasted throughout his tour of duty. Finally, many years and restaurants (and, presumably, pork dishes) later, he gets a chance to revive it.