By Brian Sloan

Earlier this decade, there were few downtown restaurants hotter than the Lion, a celebrity-packed canteen run by John DeLucie in a Greenwich Village townhouse. But the restaurant got sold and the crowd moved on. In July, a quieter restaurant, Casa Apicii, took over in the space, and a second-floor chamber was turned into an intimate cocktail annex called Bar Fortuna with just 20 seats.

If Manhattan bars often serve as communal living rooms for cramped apartment dwellers, Bar Fortuna is a luxe parlor for the downtown set. A black-and-white photo of Sophia Loren hangs over the fireplace, serving as a sort of patron saint for this distinctly Italian spot.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/