Customers, Neighbors, and Friends,
For the past three years, GG’s has proudly served the East Village with the highest quality of pizza, drinks and service possible. We are grateful for the many meals and memories that you have shared with us.
After much consideration, we have decided to hand over the keys to 511 East 5th St to a new owner and operator.
This means that GG’s will close its doors permanently on Saturday, December 23rd.
We are proud of the success that GG's has seen over the years, and we're excited for what our individual futures hold.
It has been a joy to serve our friends and neighbors every day...
The new restaurant, called GG's, will serve pizza and other dishes that, just like the current New American menu, include ingredients sourced from the restaurant's back garden. A representative tells Eater that Morgenstern hopes the new place will "serve the East Village community in a broader way." GG's is slated to open in September.
[I]t wasn’t the runaway hit of the chef’s past restaurants. The restaurant built its menu around the grilled pizzas made famous at Italian restaurant Al Forno’s in Providence, Rhode Island, and critical reception was tepid. Eater critic Ryan Sutton found that the toppings-saturated pies at Violet often missed the mark, while New York Times critic Pete Wells praised the pizzas but saw some flaws in the pasta and dessert lineup. The restaurant, which opened its doors in January 2019, also featured pasta and seafood dishes like spaghetti with clams, and grilled shrimp with spicy butter and cilantro.
Hyland called the restaurant “a fun experience” in a statement on the closure, but said that Violet wasn’t feasible to run “in a New York that is increasing drastically in cost of goods and wages.”
Etérea is Spanish for "ethereal," meaning "light and delicate, as if not of this world." It communicates our CEO Ravi DeRossi's vision of a tequila and mezcal bar unlike any other in the city, past or present. With deep red velvet banquettes, vividly colorful pillows, and thousands of hanging flowers, we hope the place will offer our guests an escape from the rat race of the city. ⠀
The restaurant will hew to the current shoestring restaurant formula of repurposed materials, including a weathered copper bar and a tin ceiling, and ingredients that are often local, perhaps even grown in the restaurant’s own garden, and pickled on the premises. The menu is fairly straightforward American, with a raw bar, and dishes like Vermont veal meatballs, seared Block Island swordfish, and braised Flying Pigs Farm pork shoulder.Nicholas Morgenstern, late of General Greene in Fort Greene, and Joel Hough, a former chef de cuisine at Cookshop, are behind this venture.
