Tag Archives: Italian food

Corkbuzz

“Buzz” is the key syllable in this new wine bar by sommelier Laura Maniec, former wine director of the B.R Guest restaurant group. Since Corkbuzz opened in late November, it’s gotten dozens of press mentions and seems to be constantly packed. Certainly an upscale wine bar by one of the few female sommeliers is a nice addition to Greenwich Village. But there are already lots of wine bars in the city, so what gives?

Bar Area, Corkbuzz

Maybe what New York’s wine bars needed all along was a feminine touch. They’re mostly patronized by women, yet the owners and wine directors of most serious wine-centric places are men. It seems like a type of machismo for a sommelier to push an intimidating, challenging wine list that does more to prove his own wine knowledge than satisfy the customer. Corkbuzz represents a kinder, gentler approach.  (more…)

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Scarpetta

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, nobody goes to the Meatpacking District anymore. It’s too crowded. This is one reason we haven’t gotten to Scott Conant’s Italian restaurant on West 14th Street until now. When it opened five years ago, New Yorkers were outnumbered in the Meatpacking District by touring Sex and the City fans, and the resulting atmosphere was decidedly unsexy.

Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil, Scarpetta

But that’s the good thing about January: Everybody leaves, and suddenly the city’s not so crowded anymore. There was even an available 8:30 reservation at this critically-acclaimed Italian spot in the Meatpacking District on a Saturday night. It was like the ’90s all over again.  (more…)

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Les Vitelloni

If you speak French, or if you can piece together a phrase or two on the page, it’s definitely worth picking up Le Figaro on the first Wednesday of Paris Fashion Week. The popular daily Parisian newspaper definitely has an in with the fashion world – chic Le Figaro editrix Virginie Mouzat is everywhere come fashion week.

Lunch Seating, Les Vitelloni

This past season their feature “Fashion Food, les tables du mode” mentioned Les Vitelloni, a new Italian restaurant in the northern Marais, a neighborhood that has become a mecca of fashion showrooms in the past couple years.  (more…)

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Frankies 570

Exterior, Frankies 570

Whatever x-factor makes for a successful restaurant, the Franks have figured it out. Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, owners of Frankies 457, Prime Meats, and Cafe Pedlar in Brooklyn plus Frankies 17 in the Lower East Side, have expanded again to open another Frankies Spuntino, this time in the West Village. They’re already the Keith McNally of Carroll Gardens, and now they may have their sights set on Manhattan.  (more…)

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Lunch: Ai Fiori

A restaurant on the second floor of a Midtown hotel may not sound promising, but Ai Fiori has couple things going for it. Not only is it the latest project by chef Michael White, it’s such a zen, air-conditioned oasis that you will forget you’re on the second floor of a hotel in Midtown.

This is particularly good if you work in Midtown and can take advantage of the discounted Restaurant Week lunch happening there now. Step out of the steamy city, up to the second floor of the Setai and into an elegant, minimalist, flower-bedecked space that recalls the old days of hotel dining, when many of the best restaurants were in hotels. It’s like walking out of the urban jungle and into civilization.  (more…)

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Birreria

New Yorkers were elated when Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich’s Italian food emporium Eataly opened last year. There was only one problem: Eataly didn’t seem to be intended for New Yorkers. A massive marketing and PR effort across the U.S. and in Europe meant that Eataly instantly filled up with tourists – even the ones who can get decent biscotti at home.

Fortunately, the Red Apple bus crowd does not seem to have discovered the new rooftop restaurant on top of Eataly yet. You’ll still be elbowed by the crowds on your way to the bar at Birreria, but at least none of those elbows will be loaded down with Century 21 bags.  (more…)

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Best Outdoor Dining 2011


As much as we complain about the heat, it’s so nice to be able to dine al fresco when summer finally comes to New York. But what we’re looking for isn’t any old table plunked on a sidewalk next to a major truck route, but a nice setting, fun scene and preferably some good food. Here is an opinionated guide to the best outdoor dining in town.  (more…)

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Tenpenny

Not everybody can be gifted with the bones of a gorgeous West Village townhouse – and sadly, Tenpenny, the new-style Italian restaurant in the back of a bland Midtown hotel lobby, was not dealt the best hand at birth. She’s not a looker from the street, since she’s practically invisible, and the boxy space doesn’t immediately shout “romance.”

Interior, Tenpenny

But the walls are painted just the right color of saturated brick red, votive candles twinkle throughout the room, the bar is long and inviting, and a skylight lets in the last light for an afterwork crowd that’s spent the entirety of a summer day in an office. She may not be a little boite on a charming side street in Venice, but Tenpenny’s doing the best with what she’s got.  (more…)

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Rome: Dining & Drinking Guide

One of the best things you can find in Rome is a bargain. After seven days on the wallet-bruising Amalfi Coast, the main thing we were craving was cheap, cheap, cheap. Fortunately, Rome has a variety of inexpensive but excellent traditional restaurants, some of them trattorias several generations old, others a new endeavor from young chefs setting up shop in up-and-coming neighborhoods. Most importantly, you don’t sacrifice anything in quality for the price.  (more…)

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Amalfi Coast: Dining & Drinking Guide

Long before farm-to-table dining was all the rage in the U.S., this verdant peninsula on the western coast of Italy was home to some of the finest, freshest cuisine anywhere. The fruits and vegetables grown right on the Amalfi Coast – terraced gardens of olives, lettuces, tomatoes and lemon trees, all whizzing by as you take the Circumvesuviana train down south – make a startling difference on the plate. Over the course of seven days this May, we sampled some of the best the Amalfi Coast has to offer. (more…)

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