Mia Dona
Posted by bellastraniera - 19/01/10 at 01:01 pm There may be no second acts in American lives, but there are in the New York restaurant business. Donatella Arpaia, who opened davidburke & donatella with chef David Burke, then Dona, Anthos and Kefi with chef Michael Psilakis, has moved onto act three with Mia Dona, which she recently reopened as a solo project.
As in the music business, solo albums are tough. You wonder if one star will be able to carry it for the whole team or if the magic will get lost in the switch. But pay attention at Mia Dona and you’ll find not just the old favorites but some interesting new notes as well.
There may not be a celebrity chef in the kitchen, but there is a good chef: Jarett Appell, who was previously at Union Square Café. Trained here by Donatella, he shows a knack for picking up on an her family recipes and inflecting them with his own personality and technique.
Take Mama Maria’s meatballs ($9), for instance. They’re not the classic pork-beef-veal mix, but a delicately flavored, lightly assembled meatball made entirely of coarsely-ground veal, with no breading, only egg as the binding agent, braised in a bright, summery marinara sauce. It’s as if you took Mama Maria and packed her off to study at a three-star restaurant.
A special of beet salad with ricotta salata arrived at our table as five little amuse bouches: sweet beets topped with salty cheese, dotted with candied pistachios and finished with a tangle of frisee. At such an inexpensive place—despite the tony location on East 58th Street, around the corner from Bloomingdale’s, nothing on the menu costs more than $20—they were an aspirational gourmet flourish.
Zia Rosinella’s panzerotti ($8) were snacky and cheesy but not particularly memorable. But they do a great job with vegetables here, shown at top: grilled cauliflower ($6) has a slight char and savory taste punctuated by raisins and pinenuts, Brussels sprouts are roasted and glazed.
Rarely do you see handmade orecchiette ($14), and Mia Dona does an admirable job, turning out firm, chewy discs for the Sunday ragu, topped with an tangy mix of brasciole and ricotta salata cheese.
You can taste the ricotta in the sheep’s milk ricotta gnocchi ($15), a favorite at Mia Dona under Michael Psilakis’ chefdom, faithfully re-executed here. Though the pasta portions are quite large—we wished they had half portions for appetizers—the gnocchi are so light that they will all get eaten regardless. The sharper, slightly stinkier caciocavallo cheese of the sauce plays off the ricotta in the gnocchi, and a particularly fennel-y ground sausage is topped with crunchy toasted bread crumbs. There’s a lot to process here, texture and flavor-wise, and it’s all delicious.
The fish dishes—branzino with crushed potato, artichokes and capers ($18), above, and grilled el dorado with sautéed tomato, capers and olive, below—still bear Psilakis’ signature stamp of capers and olives for salt and pungency, but now the tartness has been scaled back a little to better highlight the delicate fish.
Of the meat dishes, “pork tenderloin confit” ($18) may be a misnomer—it’s not falling apart like duck confit—but it strikes just the right balance between strong flavor and light texture. We couldn’t get enough of the Swiss chard underneath, a traditional Tuscan side braised in olive oil, garlic and rosemary.
The hanger steak ($19) here is chewier than usual, so if you’re going to go the red meat route, opt for the fantastic braised beef short rib in a primitivo sauce ($19). This entrée is by-the-book Italian until you get to the very top layer, an intriguingly British accent of horseradish gremolata, which perfectly offsets the rich beef and creamy, nubbly polenta underneath.
Atmosphere-wise, if you remember the cosseted, plush feeling of the former Mia Dona, with its Fornasetti plates and zebra striped carpet, the new, pared-down design scheme can feel a little spare and bereft. There are white walls, black and white prints, and antique farm implements (including a scythe, ominously angled over one diner in the corner). The music is also problematic: on that night it went from slow jazz to alternative to modern Italian love ballads, an acquired taste that you shouldn’t necessarily acquire. But when Mia Dona is full of diners as it was that night, the ambiance is cheerful and lively anyway. (Attention Midtown shoppers: Mia Dona is also open for lunch.)
Full disclosure: Because we know someone at Mia Dona, we got the special treatment that night—thus the huge amount of food you see here. But it also meant we got to meet Donatella, who was just back from Naples, where she cooked alongside a 90-year-old granny in preparation for a new, as-yet-unnamed project, and chef Jarett Appell, who clued us in to the magic behind those meatballs.
Mia Dona
206 East 58th Street, between Second and Third Avenues
New York, NY
212-750-8170
miadona.com
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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.
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