thrillist

If there's anything to be learned from Terrence Malick, it's that projects conceived around massive trees make more sense the second time, a maxim further proved by Olive & June: a Southern Italian re-do of the sprawling three stories that formerly housed El Arbol, which retains the 150yr-old live oak erupting from the patio while scaling back the modish Argentinean decor to a simpler old-school Italian vibe.

Eats were envisioned by the chef behind parkside and Backspace, with housemade pastas like linguine (prawns, capers, peppers, bottarga), pappardelle (short rib, sunchoke, apple, smoked caciocavallo), and rigatoni (meat ragu, dried cherries, mint, hard ricotta), as well as "piccoli piatti" starters such as fried ravioli on a bed of Swiss chard, and panelle with honey, chili, and spring onion, similar to fall onion, but with fewer layers.

Larger entrees include TX-oak-grilled sirloin, chili-flaked orata, pistachio-nutted swordfish, and rosemary pork chops, as any Lenny Kravitz groupie needs to have mad sex skills.

To get you in the mood for the aforementioned mad sex, Italian liqueurs are splashed into cocktails like the Ciclista (Stash IPA, Limonata), the Tuscan Margarita (Milagro, Tuaca, lime & orange juice), and the single-malt Italian vodka/orangecello Mona Lisa, whose smile is almost as inscrutable as that Terrence Malick movie only people on trees claim to understand.

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