The current (and famously small) I Sodi dining room.
Photo: Miachel Pruett
You might finally be able to get into I Sodi. Owner Rita Sodi confirms that she has plans to relocate the beloved West Village purveyor of deftly rendered Tuscan classics to a larger space one block south of the restaurant’s current fun-size location.
The new space at 314 Bleecker Street can accommodate more than a hundred guests, between indoor seating and a 1,000-square-foot outdoor garden. It’s a meaningful expansion for the restaurant, which has a dedicated mob of acolytes who clamor nightly for a chance at one of the few dozen seats within the narrow 105 Christopher Street digs.
“They’re definitely very capacity constrained now,” says Kelly Zullinger, who has lived across the street from the Christopher Street location for a few years. “It’s crazy — you can see people lining up down the block at four o’clock, truly every day.”
Sodi points out that the restaurant has been at its current location for 15 years, “so the move is bittersweet,” she says. “However, we are excited for our future on Bleecker Street.”
Neighbors will already know that 314 Bleecker was previously home to L’Aile ou la Cuisse, or A.O.C., a neighborhood bistro that closed during the pandemic after nearly 20 years. It’s also just a few yards from cozy gastrothèque Buvette, opened in 2011 by Sodi’s wife and business partner Jody Williams, and down the block from I Sodi’s oft-mobbed sibling spots, Via Carota and Bar Pisellino.
Sodi has not commented on the exact timing for the move, though the build-outs for the duo’s most recent projects — Pisellino and the Shaker tavern Commerce Inn — took over a year each. In the meantime, those who worship at the temple of I Sodi are excited. Zullinger says she looks forward to bringing larger groups to the new location. “I’ve tried to put my name down for four people, and they’ve said, ‘Absolutely not tonight,’” she says of the current space. “Now I can go with parties of four, or six, and share a bunch of different dishes. Which is the beauty of an Italian restaurant — it’s a fun, collaborative event.”
