![This midtown cafe serves classic Korean food stuff infused with Italian flavors This midtown cafe serves classic Korean food stuff infused with Italian flavors](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890090/image.jpg)
At to start with glance, Korean and Italian cuisines have totally nothing to do with just about every other. That might extremely nicely be the circumstance upon additional inspection as well—but 45-year-outdated culinary skilled Tony Park has identified a very innovative way to combine the two gastronomic types at his lately-rebranded cafe Antoya, on 32nd Avenue concerning Fifth and Sixth Avenues, correct in Koreatown.
“I constantly required to open up an genuine Korean restaurant in midtown but I also wanted to add a New York taste to it, to Americanize it a little bit,” Park, who was born to Korean mother and father in Italy and moved to New York just after faculty, recalls. “Considering that I’m an Italian chef, I made the decision to infuse Italian culinary solutions into the menu.”
What that appears to be like in follow is a tomato kimchi, for example, a Gangnam-fashion sausage which is passed via an Italian meat grinder and is served as an Italian sausage generally is (“It seems Italian but tastes Korean!”) and a rosemary- and mint-herbed lamb dish.
Park initially operated a franchise shop of well known Korean brand Samwon Backyard in the area presently occupied by Antoya. After COVID-19 hit, the initial franchise shuttered and Park was left with a store that he now had authorization to morph into something unrestricted by franchise rules—hence his want to concurrently honor his Asian and European roots.
The chef and operator is no stranger to New York’s dining scene: he is the powerhouse powering the different Angelina Bakery destinations around city, Asian-influenced Italian bakeries that serve sweet and savory treats.
His bakeries are basically the motive why he landed on the title Antoya for his not too long ago rebranded house in midtown. “Angelina Bakery is named right after my daughter and my son Antonio was generally sad that we did not have a restaurant named right after him,” explains Tony. “In Korean, when you contact your child, you increase ‘ya’ at the end as [a form of] endearment. We shorten his identify to Anto and connect with him ‘Antoya’—hence the restaurant’s identify.”
Test out some pictures of the area and foodstuff underneath:
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890091/image.jpg)
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890092/image.jpg)
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890093/image.jpg)
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890094/image.jpg)
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890095/image.jpg)
![Antoya](https://media.timeout.com/images/105890096/image.jpg)
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