Paper Moon Giardino coming to the former Bazzini space — for the past 13 years Sarabeth’s — on Greenwich and Jay, is currently scheduled to open spring 2026 (the original hope was this coming December). The owners are Tribecan Mahween Rahman, who with her husband and sons opened Beef Bar in the former Nobu space.

Paper Moon is a Milanese restaurant that, like Beefbar, has franchises all over the world.

They retained the Rockwell Group to design the restaurant — that’s their render of the dining room above. (Former Tribecan David Rockwell has done dozens of interiors, but the most recent in the neighborhood-ish is the lobby restaurant at the Perelman PAC, Metropolis, and The Corner Store, the former Dos Caminos on West Broadway and Houston.)

The original Paper Moon was opened in 1977 by Pio Galligani and his wife, Enrica Del Rosso, in Milan’s fashion district. It became a glitterati hot spot, and franchises are now in luxe destinations: Doha; Hong Kong; Algarve, Portugal; Taghazout, Morocco; Bodrum, Turkey.

Canadians by way of Bangladesh, the Rahmans (in addition to Mahween there is her husband, AJ, and their two sons, Aqib and Tareef) are in the shipping industry — they own tankers. Aqib graduated from Northeastern during covid, and while quarantining together in Toronto, the family got to brainstorming about projects they wanted to take on. Self-described foodies, they have eaten at fine dining restaurants all over the world and they wanted to try their hand at it.

“It was a good chance for Aqib and I to do something together,” Mahween told me when they were setting up Beefbar. They have long visited Tribeca — both sons went to school in the US, and Mahween is drawn to New York for its hectic pace, which reminds her of Bangladesh. Once the boys graduated, she was ready to move. “Plus the restaurants here are among our favorites — Frenchette, Nobu — and the scene is being created now for restaurants with a great vibe not just great food.”

They snagged the Nobu space, which had been empty for seven years, before they even had a concept. And now they have the Bazzini corner as well — two Tribeca classics.