Food + Drink

Bino on Smith Seized for Taxes

By Lisa M. Collins
October 5, 2011

Photo by Jason Paul

The state of New York has seized and shut down Bino, an Italian restaurant on Smith Street between Sackett and Degraw.

Red and white signs in the window say Bino was “seized for non-payment of taxes.”

The restaurant — formerly Po — was a New York Magazine “critic’s pick,” and a favorite for years in the neighborhood, often with long dinner waits on the weekends.

In April 2010 owners Sarah and Jonathan Casteel split with their business partner and changed the name from Po to Bino.

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Readers' Comments

lisa
October 13, 2011
10:46 AM

it kind of makes you wonder why they split with Po….hmmm, or did Po split with them?

Bridges
October 13, 2011
8:44 AM

Sad to see Po go. It was as good as Manhattan’s Po, which is truly a compliment. Importantly, Manhattan’s Po had been connected to Mario Bataldi and many of the dishes served at Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Po were from the vaunted Bataldi menu.

Had never tried Bino and did not, until now, understand the relationship between Po and Bino.

Here’s where some good PR might have helped Bino. Was Bino’s menu the same as Po’s? Was it continuing to carry the Bataldi tradition? If the connections were made, even a sign in the window would’ve helped–I would have eagerly returned. Perhaps other would have, too. And then perhaps the tax problems would not have shuttered the place.

A genuinely lost opportunity–perhaps.