About Us
Inspired by his family & their home-cooked meals, Vallata is Tom Colicchio's first ever Italian restaurant located at 19th & Park, just steps from Union Square Park. First a pop-up, now a permanent resident, Vallata shares straightforward Italian cooking in an intimate and eclectic space.
Vallata is a neighborhood trattoria where the abundance of the local region is used to create simple, straightforward dishes that are fully executed in a lively open kitchen and also available for pickup & delivery. Open for dinner nightly, Vallata aims to remind us of the connective powers of food & family.
Tom Colicchio
Tom Colicchio is the chef and owner of Crafted Hospitality, which currently includes New York’s Craft, Temple Court and Vallata; Long Island's Small Batch and Las Vegas’ Craftsteak.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic Tom co-founded the Independent Restaurant Coalition, and was instrumental in the passage of the American Rescue Act. Tom serves on the boards for Children of Bellevue, City Harvest, and Wholesome Wave, while his restaurants support community organizations like Edible Schoolyard NYC, FEAST, and Gods Love We Deliver.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Tom made his New York cooking debut at prominent New York restaurants including The Quilted Giraffe, Gotham Bar & Grill and Gramercy Tavern before opening Craft in 2001. Outside of his fine dining restaurants, Colicchio opened ‘wichcraft – a sandwich and salad fast casual concept rooted in the same food and hospitality philosophies as Craft – in New York City in 2003.
In an effort to broaden his long-standing activism around food issues, Tom served as an executive producer to the 2013 documentary “A Place at the Table” about the underlying causes of hunger in the United States. This eye-opening experience led Tom on a journey to Washington DC where he has been a mainstay in our nation’s capital in the years since. From holding members of Congress accountable on their voting records around food to working with former FLOTUS Michelle Obama on the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, Tom has established himself as the leading “Citizen Chef” advocating for a food system that values access, affordability and nutrition over corporate interests. In 2020, Tom took this moniker to the airwaves launching a podcast with iHeartRadio. Citizen Chef dives into food and policy issues with lawmakers, journalists and food producers by connecting the dots of how our food system really works.
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Lori Silverbush and their three sons. When he’s not in the kitchen, Tom can be found tending to his garden on the North Fork of Long Island, enjoying a day of fishing or playing guitar.