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Tag Archives: Italian food
The Babbo Cookbook: Oxtail Ragu
I must have bought The Babbo Cookbook as soon as it came out nine years ago, but it included so many recipes that were nearly impossible to make until now. Remember when guanciale wasn’t exactly a household word? Oft-mentioned ingredients like boar sausage, beef cheeks and calf’s brains may still not be available at your local Gristede’s, but now Eataly’s butcher counter sells oxtail meat. (more…)
Torrisi Italian Specialties
It sounds like a scenario out of a magazine quiz: “Are You Really a New Yorker?” Would you be willing to wait in line in the bitter cold and pay $50 per person for a candlelit meal in… a deli? The answer should be yes, not because everybody else is doing it, but because the re-envisioned Little Italy fare at Torrisi Italian Specialties is too good to be a passing fad. (more…)
Ciano
Shea Gallante is perhaps best known as the former chef of Cru, the now-shuttered restaurant with a hefty tome of a wine list and prices that went into the thousands. The only thing more starched and staid that the atmosphere was the clientele, consisting mostly of older men murmuring reverentially over their wine. If you paid attention, you could hear a bleating side-note: the food was quite good. But it almost seemed inappropriate to mention the fare, as long as it went with that Bordeaux.
Mirroring the trajectory of the New York dining scene, Gallante decamped from Cru after the crash to open a new, more casual place. Italian, of course. If the sky were raining hellfire, New Yorkers would immediately head to the nearest homey Italian restaurant for comfort food. But don’t expect to find a cozy afterthought of a meal at Ciano. (more…)
Eataly: A Strategy
If agoraphobia is a fear of crowds, and claustrophobia is a fear of being trapped small places, then what is that particularly New York fear of being trapped in a mob of people, as at Macy’s at Christmastime? Whatever the name, this is exactly the emotion that Eataly elicited during the first few months of its opening, widely touted not just in New York but apparently in every tourist brochure.
If you could make your way through the door when Eataly opened this fall, you would be caught up in a mob of Italian food enthusiasts, swept past a Lavazza espresso station, past aisles of cheeses, olive oil, chocolate and dried pasta, and deposited somewhere in the vortex of this new mega food court by chefs and television stars Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich. The line just to put down your name for a table took 10 minutes the first time we visited – the wait for an actual table was two hours. The four casual restaurants – La Pizza, La Pasta, Il Pesce and Le Verdure – looked promising, but when they’re oversubscribed to this extent, we had to say “basta!” and head out the door. (more…)
Osteria Morini
When chef Michael White said to the New York Times this past August that “if his surname had been Italian, the city’s food establishment would have rallied around him sooner,” he had a point. Names like “Batali” or “Donatella” inspire hoards to flock to their restaurants for Italian food, whereas “Michael White” sounds like an off-key version of “Marco Pierre White” of English fame.
So if you did actually discover the ethereal, exquisite pasta at Michael White’s Alto, you felt as if you’d been let in on a wonderful secret. The city’s best pasta was not at a rustic rock and roll townhouse downtown but surprisingly in the center of Midtown, with a sleek backdrop of blue-lit walls and wine bottles. Go to any serious restaurant in Italy and you will find that they aspire to the same level of excellence and haute cuisine. When there’s a particularly deft hand like White’s involved in the pasta, you can taste the magic at the first bite. (more…)
Vapiano
This first branch of this rapidly-expanding Italian “fast casual” chain in New York, Vapiano fills a void left by Dean & DeLuca when that panini and coffee shop closed just a couple blocks down on University Place, and it will probably become to the neighborhood what Dean & DeLuca was: a go-to place for a simple lunch or dinner. What will keep it from closing like Dean & DeLuca did? Vapiano has a liquor license, a spacious bar and a knack for marketing.
The light-filled interior, with soaring ceilings and sleek Italian design throughout, sets the stage for what’s actually a very back-to-basics dining experience, though at first glance it seems high tech. After picking up a key card at the door, you take a tray and collect your meal yourself, selecting panini, salads, pizza and pasta from various food stations, where they prepare each dish in front of you and scan the card. If your college dining hall went gourmet, this is what it would be like. (more…)
Corsino
One good thing about the chain-ification of New York restaurants: you pretty much know what you’re getting into before you even walk in the door. The thing to know about new casual Italian spot Corsino, located in the old Frederick’s Downtown spot, is that it’s backed by Jason Denton of ‘ino, ‘inoteca, and ‘inoteca Liquori. Cue crostini, pasta, small plates, good cocktails and a lively scene.
The menu has its ups and downs, but if you have any favorites from the other ‘inos, chances are you can order them here. A crostino with cannellini puree and artichokes ($2.50 per crostino) was the best crostino we ordered that night, the creamy beans playing off the acidity of the artichoke. But the olive tapenade, middle, was overly salty – a problem that plagued several of Corsino’s dishes, and the shrimp and arugula crostino tasted like it had been made with tinned shrimp. With so much variety on the menu here, it’s easy to stumble. But a recent dinner at ‘inoteca Liquori makes me believe that the delicious ricotta and orange honey crostini and the solid mushroom and taleggio crostini would also be good bets at Corsino. (more…)
Faustina
If Maialino is an Italian restaurant that faithfully renders the classics, Faustina is the opposite: It takes Italian cuisine and turns it on its head. Why serve cannelloni the traditional way when you can break it down and reconstruct it as separate layers of pasta, cheese and fresh tomatoes? And the art of crudi here is outsourced to a Japanese chef manning a sort of Italian sushi counter in the dining room. This is what’s happening at Scott Conant’s Faustina right now, and the result is an exciting new take on Italian cuisine.
Bacon-wrapped shellfish are nothing new—until you take prawns ($16), and wrap the tender midsection in the thinnest layer of lardo so that the whole thing dissolves in your mouth. These come on a bed of rosemary lentils. The whole dish is the perfect combination of sea and earth. (more…)
Mia Dona
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. (more…)
East Side Social Club
When somebody asks you to recommend a “cool new restaurant,” you’re liable to start ticking off names by neighborhood – usually in the Meatpacking District, West Village, Noho, Williamsburg or someplace with similar caché. But it’s time to radically adjust your thinking, because the new hot neighborhood is… the East 50s.
If anyone could reinvigorate formerly sleepy Turtle Bay, it would be powerhouses like Graydon Carter at Monkey Bar and now Billy Gilroy, of Macao, Employees Only and now East Side Social Club. (Le Relais de L’Entrecote and the newly reopened Mia Dona are other noteworthy additions to the neighborhood.) Though restauranteurs have come and gone since Gilroy first opened Page-Six favorite Match in the ‘90s, he still has a following, and the boldfaced names have followed him here. (more…)
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