More Than Good Looks

Urbana got a lot of love after its renovation that made the bar the star. But there’s more to the sexy design refresh, including a new menu that leans on fish and pasta. This whole dorade is a new dish from Executive Chef Ethan McKee. It's adorned with lemon-blasted rainbow chard, cipollini onions, fennel purée, and hazelnut brown butter. He also added a briny squid ink bucatini with all the jewels of the sea. Like Ethan’s pasta? You can now swing by Urbana on your way home to pick up perfectly dried pasta to bring home to impress someone for $6.

Ethan returned from an inspiring trip to Italy this week, where he tells us he pretty much bathed in white truffles. He also stopped at salumi and cheese shops—he’s pictured here with wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano in, where else, Parma! Another enlightening stop was the Slow Food USA “Salone del Gusto” festival in Turin, where he saw demos by three star Michelin chefs. “Everything there is so simple; we overcomplicate things here,” he tells us.

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