Gerard Craft Announces New Niche Restaurant [Updated]

Jennifer Silverberg

Gerard Craft, about to expand the Niche empire (again)

​Gerard Craft announced via Twitter today that the next restaurant to join the Niche family after the original, Taste and Brasserie by Niche will be called Pastaria by Niche. The location won't be revealed until the official announcement next week.

(That said, Gut Check encourages punters to consider a wager on a certain new office building in Clayton.)*

Craft further explained that Pastaria will be "Italian-focused but we can be as creative as we like" and that the restaurant will make all of its pasta, even the dried variety, in-house.

When I spoke with Craft this afternoon, he confirmed that Pastaria is drawn from the vestiges of Porano, the Italian concept that was to have replaced the original Niche space.

"I'm really glad we waited," he says. The Porano concept has "morphed into something we're really excited about."

For Pastaria, Craft plans a "very focused" menu of at least ten pastas at a time.

"We'll have really nice light appetizers -- antipasti, if you will," adds Craft. In addition, he says, "We'll have a few roasted meats on a rotisserie."

Craft expects pasta dishes to cost between $8-$12, with entrées in the high teens to low twenties. As for who will run the kitchen in this, his fourth restaurant, Craft says no decision has been made yet.

* - Gut Check does not encourage gambling, except on Horse Hooky Tuesday, and takes no responsibility for losing bets based on hunches that turn out to be incorrect. Have a gambling problem? Call 1-800-BETS-OFF.