When southern Italian chef Antonio Salvatore recalls home, he smells lemons and oranges. He hears the tink, tink, tink of silverware and wine glasses on outdoor dining tables that line the charming streets. He tastes creamy burrata and charred octopus. And it’s those sensations, that ambiance and those flavors of the Mediterranean that the Michelin-starred chef wanted to import to his first restaurant in the U.S. 

Salvatore, who was awarded his first Michelin star earlier this year for La Table d’Antonio Salvatore, located underneath the famed Monaco restaurant Rampoldi, will open Casa Limone in Midtown Manhattan June 8. He has been working on the project, his first in the U.S., for two years.