Bye, Bye Columbus Circle, Hello Madison Square!

"We started out twenty years ago overlooking one park. Now we'll spend another twenty years on a different park," said Tony May during a farewell luncheon yesterday. If there was any sadness in the words of the owner of restaurant San Domenico, a Central Park South institution since 1988, it was difficult to detect. Rather, the Italian entrepreneur, along with his daughter, Marisa, is viewing his eatery's move downtown, to 19 E. 26th Street, as an opportunity for reinvention. Long gone are the days, says May, when patrons of a fine dining establishment should be denied entry if they arrive for meal without a jacket and tie. "Now, we let almost anybody in—as long as they have a pair of pants," he jokes. Along with the changing dress codes since 1988 has come a relaxation of the overall dining experience, where the focus is less on fussy fashion and more on ingredients. Therein, May says, will be the mission of the new San Domenico. Indeed, the new restaurant will even have a gift shop where diners can buy some of the very same ingredients they enjoyed on their plates. We'll have to wait until at least next spring to experience it all for ourselves, but suffice it to say, the one thing that will not to change at SD26 is the trademark May hospitality—as long as you wear pants.