LA Gjelina Restaurant Opens in NYC on Bond Street

In the works for at least seven years, the NYC location for Gjelina, the Los Angeles restaurant lauded for its vegetable-centric menu, is finally open.

For now, the 45 Bond Street outpost between Bowery and Lafayette Street offers limited hours of 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Sunday, walk-ins only. There’s little about the opening on the restaurant’s Instagram or website; when Eater contacted CEO Shelley Armistead, she said the restaurant is “under a press embargo.” Armstead’s inaugural post announcing the opening says, “we’ll update you when we extend our service times and start taking reservations.”

Inside the New York outpost, a 1,700 square-foot street-level space, diners in the larger back room can look through giant mullioned windows at an L-shaped open kitchen. There’s stool seating along a bar in that room, too, and tables in both rooms. The second floor was not yet open when Eater visited.

Named for owner Fran Camaj’s mother, Gjelina opened in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood in 2008 with options like rococo seasonal pizzas; arugula salad with nectarines, burrata, and speck; and baby beets with roasted greens. The Noho location features the menu below, including bottarga pizza with arugula and smoked mozzarella ($26), a charcuterie plate on which mortadella steals the attention ($24), an Asian pear and kohlrabi salad ($19) and a natural-wine-heavy list, as well as coffee drinks and juices.

In 2016, it was reported that Gjelina owners Travis Lett, Camaj, and Armistead would collaborate with the Spotted Pig’s Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield. Two years and a sexual harassment scandal later, the building’s landlord stated that the project was still on but Friedman and Bloomfield’s involvement had been scrapped. Since then, Lett left Gjelina in 2019.

The property’s landlord also shared with Eater in 2018 that the Gjelina team had also started upstate farm in Rhinebeck, New York, to supply to the Noho project.