Osteria La Baia
Italian restaurant · Midtown West ·
Traditional and creative Italian cuisine plus cocktails and chic decor
Traditional and creative Italian cuisine plus cocktails and chic decor
"An owner of the Midtown Italian restaurant who is a frequent Mayor Eric Adams’s hangout is being sued for $122,000 in back rent for a condo at 845 United Nations Plaza (also known as Trump World Tower), according to Crain’s New York Business. The lawsuit mentions his brother’s partner, Marianna Shahmuradyan, the mother of their three children, and states she had been living in the apartment with the owner as guarantor on the lease." - Melissa McCart
"I know Johnny and Robert Petrosyants as the faces of Midtown’s Osteria La Baia; they are now at the center of a New York Times investigation alleging unpaid debts and broken business deals dating to their 2014 guilty pleas for financial crimes. The reporting says businesses connected to them have been accused of misusing funds — including more than $1.2 million in PPP loans — and owing at least $1.7 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest plus about $1.5 million in unpaid rent, allegations that have cast a shadow over their restaurants even as Mayor Eric Adams, who dined at the siblings’ West 52nd Street restaurant 14 times in one month this summer, has repeatedly defended their friendship and said he did not discuss business with them." - Luke Fortney
"At this “coastal Italian” restaurant that opened last year in midtown, I was first lured by a baby‑blue vintage coupe parked on Fifty‑second Street, silk flowers bursting from its windows and an open hood. A genial manager asked how we'd heard of the place; Politico and the Times have since identified it as a favored haunt of Mayor Eric Adams—who reportedly visited at least fourteen times in June, often closing the frosted‑glass private dining room—and the owners, twin brothers Robert and Zhan Petrosyants, are described as close friends of the Mayor and as convicted felons barred from holding a liquor license. The meal was uneven: a palatable but overdressed Caesar; vitello tonnato finished with caper berries (the high point); a lukewarm vegan pizza topped with delicata squash and hemp ricotta; chewy lobster and limp garganelli; overcooked, undersalted rigatoni alla Norma with a too‑sweet sauce; and mushrooms in the vegan entrée that tasted disappointingly fermented. Before our drinks arrived a server mistakenly brought me an enormous bowl of chocolate gelato—an error I later wished I'd eaten—and the branzino, presented gutted and splayed skin‑side up with bubbled, charred edges and a taut, stretchy center over olives, tomatoes and sweet peppers, was so visually and texturally off‑putting it could turn a pescatarian away. Management declines photographers for reviews and once told a reviewer the kitchen was closed for an electrical problem even as Instagram showed a birthday party with the Mayor; dishes range from $16 to $155." - Hannah Goldfield
"It’s no secret that Osteria La Baia, which opened in 2021, is the ostensibly vegan mayor’s favorite restaurant, where his usual order is a $55 plate of branzino with wood-roasted sweet peppers, smoked tomato, and capers. The restaurant is owned by “Robert and Zhan Petrosyants — twin brothers whose businesses Mr. Adams has supported despite the brothers’ past felony convictions, outstanding tax debts, and a trail of legal troubles,” the New York Times reports. Adams reportedly visited the restaurant 14 times in June; the Times said reporters never saw the mayor pay a bill, but the mayor’s office says he pays the bill monthly — without providing receipts." - Melissa McCart
"I see this Midtown Italian spot as one of Mayor Eric Adams’s regular nighttime haunts; it’s run by twin brothers Robert and Zhan Petrosyants, who — according to the New York Times — have a checkered history that includes felony convictions, unpaid tax bills and other legal issues. Times reporters staked out the restaurant and recorded the mayor visiting at least 14 times in June, raising its profile as one of his go-to dinner spots, and it’s unclear whether Adams pays his checks: reporters never saw him pay, and although a mayoral spokesperson says he pays monthly, no receipts were provided by the mayor or the restaurant." - Erika Adams
