After he was hired as the chef of Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, which will return next month under new ownership after a three-month renovation, Mark Ladner began diving into the past.

He studied the history of the restaurant that preceded Babbo at 110 Waverly Place, the Coach House, founded in 1949 by a classic Greenwich Village character from Corfu. He pored over vintage menus from Parioli Romanissimo, for a while in the 1970s the most exclusive, expensive and acclaimed Italian restaurant in New York.

All this time hunched over in the archives may seem a little unnecessary, given that Babbo has some history of its own.

“The elephant in the room is the thing with Mario,” Mr. Ladner said in an interview. “I’m trying to find ways not to talk about it, but the more I’m asked about it, the harder it is. So I started to look further back.”

The thing with Mario. Right. You can’t tell Babbo’s story without talking about Mario Batali. You can’t tell Mr. Ladner’s story, either.