“This is intimate, this is manageable, and it fell into my lap,” says chef Lana Lagomarsini of Creola, the new restaurant she debuts today, after years resisting the concept of a brick-and-mortar.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Lagomarsini has traveled the globe and made a name for herself exploring the connections between African diaspora cuisine and American food culture through pop-ups, private dining experiences, and television appearances. The pedigreed chef was happy with the independence and creative freedom afforded by her private catering business, Lana Cooks.
But one day, a friend from Les Dames d’Escoffier called with an unexpected opportunity. She was moving and her turnkey catering space was available—a charming, 300-square-foot room on the border of the Upper East Side and Harlem that Lagomarsini had long admired. “I always said, if I had a space like that, then I would open something,” she admits. “So I thought, Okay, I have to. I would be kicking myself if I didn’t at least try.”
An Intimate Tasting-Menu Restaurant
And so, today, September 9, Lagomarsini debuts Creola, an intimate, 14-seat tasting-menu restaurant named after her grandmother. To transform the space’s tiny footprint into a dining room, Lagomarsini leaned on a strong CV that includes 15 years in some of New York’s most demanding kitchens, such as Gramercy Tavern, Restaurant Daniel, Momofuku, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. More recently, she traveled to Patagonia to apprentice under legendary fire-master Francis Mallmann and served as executive chef at his restaurant Garzon, in Uruguay.
That high-intensity training and personality has also made her a natural fit for television. Audiences first fell in love with her fierce, no-nonsense attitude on Netflix’s Pressure Cooker (2023), then on Chopped (2024), and more recently on Top Chef: Destination Canada (2025).
The only thing that matches her loyalty as a friend is her talent as a chef. She is extremely dependable, fiercely skilled, and will always make sure we get some laughs in.
Fariyal Abdullahi, fellow chef, TV personality, and close friend of Lagomarsini
“Since Top Chef, my cooking has only gotten better,” Lagomarsini explains. “I feel like I’ve really nailed down my particular style and what I want to say with food. It really pulled out a voice inside that confirmed I can conceptualize something from start to finish.”
During her time on the show, Lagomarsini connected with other up and comers like Chef Bailey Sullivan of Monteverde in Chicago. “Lana has this magnetic energy that draws people together,” she says.
A Living Room and Dining Room in One
At Creola, Lagomarsini has channeled that confidence into a space that is meant to feel like the extension of her late grandmother Creola’s living room, which, incidentally, is only a few blocks away on West 89th Street, and still occupied by family. The restaurant’s 300-square-foot space features exposed brick on one side and original decorative wallpaper on the other.
A dark blue velvet banquette by the window, left by the previous tenant, actually served as Lagomarsini’s initial design inspiration. The rest of the room is filled out with tables and chairs from friends and family, alongside a statuesque hutch, found at an antiques warehouse upstate in Hudson. On each main wall there’s a framed picture of Creola—one is the original old photograph and the other, a painting of the photo.
There’s an immediate sense of intimacy felt when crossing the threshold from the street into the cozy space. The name Creola deliberately roots the restaurant in the chef’s family legacy and spirit.
“She was definitely the matriarch of my family,” Lagomarsini says of the namesake. “I remember her cooking for me as a child. I feel really lucky to have experienced it and wish I still had 20 more years with her.”
African Diaspora Cuisine Meets American Cooking
By leaning into the small scale of a 12- to 14-seat dining room, Lagomarsini is able to replicate the cozy, welcoming atmosphere her grandmother always shared, while creating the food she’s quickly becoming known for. Her five-course tasting menu celebrates the rich, varied flavors of the pan-African and Black diaspora, perfectly encapsulating her culinary identity. It’s highly technical and demonstrates her years of training while being deeply nostalgic and indicative of her family and childhood.
And, those who watched her season of Top Chef will recognize some of her popular creations, like the collard green ‘potlikker’ Consommé served with trout and cornbread croutons that have roasted in the trout fat; or the Patty en Crute, with her Oxtail pâté en croute and plantains, a riff on a Jamaican beef patty. She also created a passionfruit tiramisu as the sweet finish.
While the name Creola honors her family’s matriarch, it also evokes a rich culinary history of Creole culture, which connects to notions of local roots, racial diversity, and mixed global heritage, something Lagomarsini personally connects to. “I enjoy the fact that my grandmother’s name could also be interpreted in this way,” Lagomarsini says. “It works in my favor for my type of cooking…it’s just a win-win.”
Lana speaks her mind, stands firmly in who she is and does it all with so much kindness. Her food carries the same confidence and joy. She embraces simplicity yet makes it look easy—and that’s no small feat. Now, at Creola, everyone gets the chance to experience a little bit of what makes Lana and her cuisine so special.
Bailey Sullivan, Top Chef contender and executive chef of Monteverde in Chicago
After a relatively smooth spring and summer buildout, which felt “almost too easy,” Lagomarsini broke her wrist rollerskating a week before her friends and family dinners were slated to start at Creola in August.
“I thought we were going to crash and burn, but it’s been working out much better than I could have expected. My sous chef is crushing it, ” says Lagomarsini, who just had surgery on her wrist yesterday, ahead of Creola’s grand opening. “It’s a good lesson in that I don’t need to cook all the time to be able to run a restaurant in my own vision.”
In a lesson of letting go and trusting, Lagomarsini is leaving day-of prep to her kitchen team and plans to walk right through the doors just in time for Creola’s first dinner service.
After years resisting a restaurant, Lagomarsini has tailor-made a version that suits her. In Creola, she’s built a haven that channels her grandmother’s warm, inviting spirit while showcasing her own distinctive culinary identity—all at a scale that feels manageable. “Of course, accolades are nice, but success for me is doing fun menus, having people come in, and putting out food that I’m really proud of,” Lagomarsini says. “That feels good enough for me.”
With a dining room that feels and looks like home, the chef is eager to get back into the kitchen. “Just wait until I’m actually at the pass cooking every single day,” she laughs. “As soon as I’m in that mobile cast, it’s over.”
Creola
1261 Park Ave, New York, NY 10029
(917) 765-0816
@creolanyc
