{"id":197250,"date":"2026-04-14T19:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197250\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:52:08","slug":"cafe-mars-in-brooklyn-turns-into-an-italian-izakaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197250\/","title":{"rendered":"Caf\u00e9 Mars in Brooklyn Turns Into an Italian Izakaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only is there life at Mars, but it’s about to get a whole new identity. At least for a month, that is.<\/p>\n

Caf\u00e9 Mars, one of Brooklyn\u2019s most inventive restaurants, is about to get a full-blown identity swap when\u00a0it transforms into an Italian izakaya starting May 6. For it, the space will reimagine its menu, d\u00e9cor and overall vibe around Itameshi cuisine, which blends Japanese ingredients and techniques with Italian cooking.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: The 22 best Italian restaurants in NYC<\/a><\/p>\n

If that sounds niche, well, yeah, it is, but the whole thing is\u00a0also having a moment. And Caf\u00e9 Mars, which has built a reputation as \u201can unusual Italian restaurant\u201d in Gowanus, is going all in\u00a0with neon katakana signage, chopstick holders designed for rigatoni and even a Suntory \u201cDivine Foam\u201d draft system behind the bar.<\/p>\n

\"Cafe
\nPhotograph: Courtesy of Cafe Mars <\/p>\n

The concept builds on the restaurant\u2019s popular \u201cGlobal Italian\u201d series from 2025, when the team hosted one-off collaborations spotlighting how Italian cuisine has evolved across regions from New Orleans to Argentina. But one of the standout\u00a0installments was its Japan-focused weekend with chef James Mark, which helped spark the idea for a deeper dive.<\/p>\n

The upcoming Itameshi menu\u00a0will boast playful, boundary-pushing dishes like fluke cured in parmesan and white miso, a \u201cpepperonigiri\u201d (yep, pepperoni sushi), giardiniera-spiked potato salad with Slice Spice Pringles and pan-fried tortellini-gyoza finished with bergamot ponzu. It\u2019s the kind of mashup that\u00a0looks chaotic on paper but seems so\u00a0wild that it\u00a0has to work.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0new menu\u00a0will run Wednesdays through Saturdays during dinner service\u00a0beginning May 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York\u00a0is certainly not lacking when it comes to fusion restaurants, but this kind of concept-driven, temporary transformation feels rarer and very up-to-the-minute, in line with how the city truly eats. It also taps into a broader fascination with Itameshi, which has been gaining traction among chefs and diners alike. If nothing else, it\u2019s a reminder that in NYC, even a neighborhood Italian spot can reinvent itself overnight.<\/p>\n

Reservations are now open and, given the limited run, you\u2019ll probably want to snag one early. For more information and to book your table, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not only is there life at Mars, but it’s about to get a whole new identity. At least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,2590,9,24,2591,63,821],"class_list":{"0":"post-197250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-categories-restaurants","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news-eating","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}