Chef Ian Vest Opens Modern Italian Restaurant, Talia, in Port Chester

One could argue, that before Greenwich Avenue’s current restaurant boom, one of the hottest spots on the block from 2015 until it closed in 2020 was Back 40 Kitchen.

Now, just a touch over the Byram neighborhood’s border in Port Chester, frequenters of Back 40 will see a familiar face in Ian Vest at his newly opened Talia.

Vest, originally a St. Louis native, who got his start in the industry at 13 years old and never left it, has seen his fair share of stints working at delis, burrito places, and “everywhere you can imagine.” But hard work pays off, as it landed him an executive chef position at The Crossing, a French-Italian fine dining restaurant in Clayton, Missouri, then, to The Culinary Institute of America.

Hamachi crudo - orange, radish, fennel confit, jalapeño, dried olives, orange vin

Who doesn’t like a fancy grilled cheese?

Deviled eggs with kimchi. Oh, and if you’re into happy hours, Talia’s is Tuesday - Friday from 4 -6 where you can snag bar snacks, mini pizzas, and portioned pastas at a bargain.

Lamb polpette - cucumber, lime yogurt, mint-serrano gremolata

“I enrolled in their accelerated program,” Vest says. “After that, I went to (Daniel Boulud’s) Daniel, then DBGB Kitchen & Bar as executive sous, then executive chef. Every day was a sprint. It’s intense. But you’ll learn a lot (working for him) and it’s a great time.”

In 2016, Vest took over Back 40’s head chef position until its owners decided that restaurant was done during COVID.

But where’s he been since 2020?

“I was raising my daughter, who’s now four, while opening this (Talia),” Vest explains. “I met a lot of people at Back 40 and I became friends with a handful of guys who would go to our wine dinners and that turned into them wanting to become my partners. We looked forever for a place; Yonkers, Mamaroneck, everywhere. Greenwich Ave is too expensive and maybe also played out and oversaturated. We found this and it was nothing like what you see now. There was watering pouring from the ceilings, the basement was dirt. My partners told me I was crazy. I told them to trust me. It was a long road. It took almost three years.”

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Inside of his new restaurant, named after his daughter, Talia, Vest is doing his own brand of Italian. And at the same time, he’s concentrating on great hospitality, quality, and cohesiveness.

“I wanted it to be Italian, French, New American, whatever I wanted,” he says. “We did pasta and whatever we wanted there (at Back 40). We lean more Italian here, modern Italian, playful Italian. We won’t do penne all vodka. There’s French flair here and there. I cook food that I think is good and don’t really obey many laws or rules. But then again, I’m probably not doing seafood with cheese, but then again, we have the illegalle pizza, which is clams and pecorino romano. We’re seasonal, chef driven. I have a great culinary team back there. They’re all hungry. I have two sous chefs who I’ve been working with for a long time. Food is a constant conversation that’s never gonna stop. I don’t care if you’ve made my bolognese for 10 years, we have to taste it every time. The day we stop talking about it, is the day we start going downhill. Eventually, there will be a day when I’m not here and I take a day off, so you have to learn to accept imperfections. I plate and try to make everything look as nice as I can, and I tell the servers, if you knock something over, it happens, we can replate it. Learn to let it go, chill, and it’s OK. We’re concentrating on making sure guests are happy. Between tickets I try to find pockets to go out to the dining room and touch every table.”

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As for Talia’s menu, Vest knows it’s big to start out, and they keep adding. He’s currently pondering what, if anything, they can take off, but there are already fan favorites even though they’re only a few months old.

Some of those early fan favorites, he says, are the pastas, each noodle made in-house, and “more refined” versions of bucatini carbonara, orecchiette cacio e pepe, casarecce (red sauce, garlic, ricotta, basil), tagliatelle ai funghi (roasted mushrooms, white truffle butter, parm), and rigatoni bolognese that’s not made with beef, pork, or veal, but with chicken.

“Chicken bolo was born out of Back 40 because we had so much chicken, so we broke it down and made a bolo out of it,” Vest shares. “The secret is way too much fennel seed, only skin on dark meat, we grind it. It’s got a meaty complex flavor with the fennel, mirepoix, red wine, cream, and tomatoes. It’s great for people who don’t eat veal or pork.”

One of five pizzas on the menu is this Salsiccia pie - pork sausage, melted onions, low moisture mozzarella

The pizza is Neapolitan-ish and even though Vest isn’t following that style’s standards, he’s proud of it.

“Caputo flour, 70-percent hydration, 48-hour bulk fermentation in the walk in,” he says. “The bulk ferment is slow to get all that flavor, that yeasty crust, doughy flavor, and the crust has a little sourness to it. Minimal chew, doughier, fluffier. Cooked in a super-hot TurboChef oven. Real pizza chefs might turn their nose to that. They might see that pattern and be like, ‘Ahh, that’s not it,’ but I like it. I think it’s good pizza and a lot of people agree.”

Dry aged duck - carrot-ginger puree, baby turnips, fresh segmented oranges, jus

Chicken breast - crispy polenta, Swiss chard, piquillo pepper coulis

But make no mistake, it’s not just a pizza and pasta restaurant, and here’s where it deviates from being strictly Italian…lamp polpette with cucumber, lime yogurt, mint-serrano chili gremolata; seared swordfish belly sashimi with jalapeño, shallots, and lime; Hamachi crudo with orange, radish, fennel confit, dried olives, jalapeño, and orange vin; and snacks like a bikini sandwich (Jamon, Machchego, white truffle butter) and kimchi topped deviled eggs. 

“We tried to create a menu where you can offer something for everyone, like sometimes it’s an earlier crowd with kids or people come on a date later on,” Vest says. “I don’t think we have any misses. We worked hard on it. The deviled eggs are like a French style with Dijon and whole grain mixed with the yolk, chive and tarragon, a little mayo, and top it with kimchi.”

But if you put Vest on the spot, his favorites are all the pastas, and the duck—dry aged on the cage for 4-6 days to give it some funkiness, but also to take the water out of it and dry the skin out. They cook it slowly, skin side down to render off the fat, constantly pouring it out of the pan. The end result? A mid, to mid rare duck breast with “really nice crispy skin.”

Blue Filth - stilton infused vodka, vermouth, Castelvetrano olives

Saffron Sour - blanco tequila, saffron lemon juice, honey

Hibiscus Noir - spiced rum, hibiscus, allspice, ginger, honey

I take sips of my Autumn Ember (roasted sweet potato infused bourbon, fig, Angostura and chocolate bitters) and my date’s Blue Filth (stilton infused vodka, vermouth, Castelvetrano olive) during our conversation and I can’t help but ask, “Who’s running your bar program?”

Vest’s answer? “We are.”

“Just as food is a constant conversation, beverages are, too,” he says. “We come together as a team for everything. We have a talented culinary team and we can help our bartenders with an ingredient they need or we can at least cut down their prep time. You want a thyme oil float on top of your spring scented martini? We’ll make that for you. Apple-yuzu sorbet to float in a cocktail? We can do that. Changes will be seasonal and cocktails can’t all be masculine or feminine, and they can’t all be herbaceous. We’re going for balance. The Blue Filth, the vodka is infused with super high-quality stilton. It’s not my recipe, but my idea. I went to Sebastian and said, ‘Let’s use stilton.’ He’s the brains behind it, he clarified it a little bit, and he executes it. The sweet potato bourbon? I turn around one day and he’s roasting sweet potatoes saying he wants to make a cocktail with it. When it’s ready, he asked if I want to try it and it worked.”

Talia’s Tiramisu is a take on a classic dessert with a super airy mascarpone, but what’s different about it? Your spoonful won’t only have espresso-soaked ladyfingers on it, but vanilla ice cream and a rich caramel sauce, too. We’re guessing Vest’s daughter would approve.

Oh, and remember that bit about Vest meeting his partners at wine dinners years ago? That’s one of Talia’s features, too, their wine list.

“They all have massive wine collections, so a lot of the bottles are on consignment, and from their personal collections,” Vest says. “We can offer crazy high wines that steakhouses might charge $1,000 for, we can charge $600. There are some really rare finds and vintages here.”

And if there is anything else coming soon, even this early on at Talia, you’ll quickly notice a boarded up boxy structure that will soon be the restaurant’s four-season patio, an addition to what Vest strongly believes is already a “hip, vibrant, young, sexy” spot.

25 Willett Avenue, Port Chester
914.417.6136, talia-restaurant.com