In a daring Upper East Side dining relocation, Campagnola — an “Italian Country Restaurant” at 1382 First Ave. for nearly 40 years — is moving from its tenement-building home to the fashionable Impala condo tower two blocks north at 1456 First Ave., where its latest landlord can be Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty.
It’s a surprising change of venue for Campagnola, which has long drawn celebrities, politicians and law-enforcement bigs who enter through a country, arched-ceiling front room. The menu’s hearty southern and northern Italian dishes are attuned to the “country” theme and “meant to be shared,” its website says.
But Meridian Retail Leasing president James Famularo, who brokered the lease for Campagnola owner Curt Huegel, said that Huegel “has leaned on a talented designer, Delphine Mauroit, the owner of DMDesign & Architecture, to capture the soul and ambience of the unique” — possibly including the unique bar, furniture and artwork.
The brand new space in a former yoga studio at the bottom of the tower may have 3,400 square feet “in an ideal L shape” on the bottom, Famularo said, plus, 2,000 square feet within the basement. The setup allows the dining area to take up the entire major floor.
He couldn’t discuss terms attributable to a non-disclosure agreement. The move is anticipated to happen in about nine months.
The owner was repped by Brandon Singer of MONA leasing, a brokerage that’s backed by RFR.
Huegel’s company, Host Restaurants, owns several major venues out and in of town. Amongst them is the Sefton bar/lounge across the road from the unique Campagnola — a lease that Famularo also handled.
Huegel was all the time known for restaurants, not for bars — but Famularo said he got the idea for Sefton when he noticed plenty of Campagnola customers trying to find drinks nearby while they waited for his or her tables.
