Prosciutto, intimate East Village restaurant with pasta pedigree, seeks license

A tiny East Village storefront that once housed a psychic shop is now poised for Prosciutto, a compact Italian restaurant with a pasta pedigree that will matter to anyone who follows New York’s handmade-pasta scene. The project at 435 E 9th Street is still working through licensing, but the paper trail already points to a serious neighborhood opening, not a casual red-sauce filler.

City filing shows Prosciutto LLC as the applicant for the address, with 435 East 9th Street Realty LLC listed as the building owner. Manhattan Community Board 3’s SLA Licensing & Outdoor Dining Committee is scheduled to meet on May 11 at 6:30 p.m., giving the proposed beer, wine and cider license its next public step. For the East Village, that means one of the block’s newest dining prospects is moving into view before a single plate hits the table.

The name behind the room adds weight. Co-owners Gabriele Tosi and Mattia Casarin were recently the executive chef and head chef, respectively, at Fiaschetteria Pistoia, the Tuscan restaurant that has built a strong reputation in New York for handmade pasta. That background matters here because it suggests Prosciutto is coming from a kitchen culture where pasta is not an afterthought. It is the point.

Fiaschetteria Pistoia’s own menu makes that clear, with house pastas including pici cacio e pepe, pappardelle al ragù, spaghetti con pomarola, maccheroni sull’anatra, ravioli ricotta e spinaci, and tagliatelle al tartufo. The restaurant says the family has worked in restaurants in Pistoia since 1890, a lineage that gives Tosi and Casarin a direct connection to one of the city’s more established Tuscan pasta traditions. In a city crowded with Italian openings, that kind of resume stands out immediately.

Prosciutto itself is expected to be intimate. The plan calls for about 20 seats on the ground floor, with a maximum capacity of 45, shaping the room as a small, neighborhood-facing dining spot rather than a sprawling trattoria. It will serve lunch and dinner, and permit documents also point to live acoustic jazz and karaoke, which could give the place a livelier East Village edge than the typical pasta room.

The address already has restaurant history behind it. Public liquor-license records show prior tenants at 435 E 9th Street including Evil Katsu and Dian Kitchen LLC. Prosciutto now looks set to add a different chapter, one that pairs Tuscan technique with the East Village’s familiar late-night energy. For pasta fans, the story is simple: this is one storefront worth watching closely.