At Ambra, less is more.

John Delucie has opened a West Village gem.

I’ve been writing about restaurants for a long time now, since 1999, a few years after ditching the law. One of the first chefs I interviewed and got to know was John Delucie. John is the son of a jazz musician (his dad) and an Italian cook (his mom), who thought he’d become a rock star; he gigged live on stage at a New York City club with legendary guitarist Skunk Baxter. (If you’ve heard Steely Dan’s “Reeling in the Years” that’s Skunk Baxter.)

Ambra is located on a cute corner in the West Village (art by @CoffeeCakesCafe)

Delucie still plays, but his mother’s DNA and his time in the kitchen cooking with her and his grandmother led him to a career in kitchens. 

We met way back, maybe it was when he was at Arizona 206, or perhaps it was when he was cooking at Cocina in the ABC Carpet? Either way, it was a LONG time ago. But we have stayed friends through the decades as his star grew from a behind the scenes cook with a solid Italian-American foundation, to a celebrity chef courting the likes of Graydon and Gwenyth at The Waverly Inn and The Lion. 

The Waverly Inn, which John opened with Graydon Carter.

I remember for one of the first stories I wrote about him, I asked him to share his biggest mistake. He told me about the time he was hired to be the head chef at Dean & Deluca and he was making potato salad and had finally put it all together – the dill, the homemade mayonnaise and all the finely diced celery and was ready to put it out in the deli case when he realized his mistake. He had forgotten to boil the potatoes. Whenever I make potato salad I think of him and the gallons of raw potato salad he had to toss on his first day of work at Soho’s most bougie deli. (You can read all about John in his memoir, The Hunger, written with the great Ken Carlton.)

Anyway, John is no longer on potato salad duty. These days he’s raising his son Giuseppe (“Seppe”) with his wife Julia Chien and digging into his southern Italian roots at a sweet little spot called Ambra. (He’s also partnered with the Cafeteria Group to reopen Chelsea’s iconic Empire Diner, and owns Bedford & Co., inspired by Argentine grills, in midtown.) Ambra is his latest venture and it’s low-lit and cozy, on a coveted West Village corner with 75 seats just across the street from the White Horse Tavern, owned by Ambra partner Andrea Ienna, founder of San Paolo Hospitality.