Baby Brasa, Restaurant By Model-Turned-Chef, Opens In The West Village

WEST VILLAGE, NY — The underwear model-turned-chef-turned-internet celebrity Franco Noriega is opening his second New York City restaurant on Friday.

Noriega, famous for his online cooking tutorials during which he wears an apron and not much else, opened the first Baby Brasa on the Lower East Side last year. Now, he's expanding to a bigger space in the West Village: Baby Brasa 2.0 is moving into the space at 173 7th Ave. S., which was previously occupied by Empire Szechuan Village. The West Village mainstay closed in 2015 after 30 years in the neighborhood reportedly following — what else — a steep rent hike. Baby Brasa's new location opened Friday, a restaurant rep confirmed to Patch in an email.

Baby Brasa models itself after Peruvian pollerías and focuses on serving healthy and responsibly sourced meals, with the rotisserie chicken as its signature dish. Noriega, who previously worked as a model for brands including Dolce & Gabbana and Burberry, was born to a Peruvian family of restaurant owners before studying at Le Cordon Blue, according to Baby Brasa's website. Somewhere between working as an underwear model and becoming a New York City restauranteur he found a happy medium creating cooking videos as the "naked chef." Along with his You Tube tutorials, Noriega has proved a popular guest on TV shows like "Ellen"and has even been the subject of a BuzzFeed quiz.

Noriega is expected to open a Williamsburg location of the restaurant later this year. (For more news from the West Village and New York City, subscribe to Patch news alerts here.)

Lead image courtesy of Baby Brasa on Instagram.