From the Westside to West Village: Two Popular Santa Monica Restaurants Launch Shared-Space Eatery in NYC

Crudo e Nudo and Breakfast By Salt’s Cure open in West Village

By Dolores

Two of Santa Monica’s most popular restaurants launched a shared a space eatery in New York City this week. Crudo e Nudo and Breakfast By Salt’s Cure will both use that same address, one in the morning and one in the evening as reported by Eater Los Angeles. The space is in the West Village at 27 1/2 Morton Street and Chef Chris Phelps found the empty space and then invited friends and Crudo e Nudo’s co-owners Brian Bornemann and Leena Culhane to join him in the storefront. They had met at pop ups in Los Angeles and found that they had much in common particularly their feelings about the importance of sustainability in the ingredients of the food industry and their restaurants.

Bornemann, the executive chef for both of Crudo e Nudo’s locations said, as quoted by Eater Los Angeles, “We both have these very specific concepts — kind of complementary in that [Phelps] was doing breakfast, we can take over right after. It was an easy transition.” Crudo e Nudo’s east coast version is called Bella Dea and will be managed by Joe Barron, of Tria and Terroir, and Zoe Wilkins of BLC Oyster Bar, Terroir and Esme who are New York based chefs and experienced in the NYC hospitality scene.

The building is six floors and dates from the 1910 era and they’ve had possession of the space since July of 2021. Leena Culhane was in charge of the redesign of the space and changed the decor from a dark wooden paneling to a white walled area with modern lighting and aqua wainscotting. The turnaround on the redesign only took an incredibly short nine days during September of 2021 and occurred while the restaurant was waiting for its liquor license. Bella Dea has more space than Crudo e Nudo has ever had available with their outside sidewalk seating only. Bella Dea has room for 50 indoor seats and another 20 outside.

Bella Dea also differs from Crudo e Nudo’s menu because it offers some cooked dishes like steamed mussels and croquettes that come with a roasted garlic aioli. Both restaurants have the same dedication to sustainably sourced seafood, vegan dishes and wines that are sourced from vineyards that specialize in biodynamic and low intervention farming and harvesting. Culhane said, as quoted by Eater Los Angeles, “It’s kind of surprising to be a sustainable seafood venture with a pretty substantial vegan menu. But it works because it’s the way that Brian and I eat. It’s a lot of veggies, a lot of well-sourced fish. We made the menu and we made the operation the way that we would dream to have it.”

Crudo e Nudo began during the pandemic as a pop up and has already secured brick and mortar on Main Street in Santa Monica. Breakfast by Salt’s Cure and its sister restaurant Salt’s Cure have been around since 2011 as one of the city’s prime brunch spots.

Bella Dea will be open Thursday through Saturday from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm and on Sundays from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm for their opening week. Their regular hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm and they will start a happy hour on May 11, that runs from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm