In Vino Restaurant Hires Batali Alum As Executive Chef

In Vino, the East Village Italian wine bar that has been serving the neighborhood Southern Italian wines and plates since 2003, welcomes James Kelly as their executive chef and newest member of their staff. Kelly most recently worked as the sous chef at Mario Batali's Babbo Ristorante on Waverly Place, and worked under executive chef Frank Langello there for two years. Kelly is starting this week at the Alphabet City Italian mainstay, and will be bringing a fresh eye to the Italian dishes at In Vino, from a house-made salumi to freshly-prepared gelato and sorbet.

"James Kelly is going to get into In Vino's kitchen and hit the ground running. He'll be incorporating new dishes each week until the menu is fully his," said owner Keith Beavers. "James just ended his two-year run at Babbo and is stoked to take over my kitchen. His menu ideas are so bad-a** they make me swoon. To come are fun things like house-made gelato and sorbet, chicken for two, linguini with razor clams... and the list goes on."

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Joanna Fantozzi is an Associate Editor with The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter@JoannaFantozzi