Overview
History
Follow the small neon sign downstairs
Peasant Wine Bar is easy to miss: it sits downstairs from the restaurant's main room, and only a small neon "wine bar" sign keeps you from walking right past the entrance1. Back then we said the dark, rustic room felt like a European wine cellar, and a cellar ought to take a little finding.
Upstairs, Peasant opened in 1999, and chef Frank DeCarlo built much of it with his own two hands to serve the rustic Italian food he always wanted to eat2. In twenty years it became a Nolita staple and one of the city's pioneers of open-fire cooking3, 4.
In December 2019 it was going to close, and then it wasn't3. By 2022 Marc Forgione was chef and owner, and there was a Peasant Wine Bar downstairs at 194 Elizabeth Street5.
Both floors are open now: the restaurant says it's open, and the wine bar says it's open to the public nightly6, 7.
Sources
Researched October 2026.