Italian Cuisines
Rewind
137 Essex St., btwn. Stanton & Rivington Sts.(212)779-7923 TYPE: Asian-influenced ItalianVIBE: Supper club(by) OCCASION: Lounging on the LES GO WITH: A table service crowdDON’T MISS DISH: Butternut Squash and Asiago Cheese Ravioli DON’T BOTHER DISH: Sweet & sour tuna with berry puree PRICE: $30 HOURS: Dinner, Tuesday – Sat., 5 PM-11:30 PM, Sunday, 11 AM-4 PM. Open every night for cocktails and bottle service until 4 AM. INSIDE SCOOP: At 11:30, food service ceases to make way for the DJ & bottle service crowd. The real party doesn’t get started until after dinner. RESTAURANT GIRL RATES (1-10): 3 FINAL WORD: Tuna, noodles, & strawberries, oh my! Fast forward to dessert. The Lower East Side’s latest lounge hopes to be a one-stop shop for all things nightlife: food, drinks, DJ, & dancing under one roof. Rewind’s refreshingly un-velvet rope attitude...
Read MoreEnoteca Barbone
Enoteca Barbone 186 Ave B, between 11th & 12th Sts. 212.254.6047 CODE.TV Video (With Restaurant Girl) TYPE: Modern Italian VIBE: Backyard garden party OCCASION: Summer in the city GO WITH: A dine-by-moonlight date or group (the patio’s big enough for everyone!) DON’T MISS DISH: Short Rib pappardelle DON’T BOTHER DISH: Porcini-crusted halibut PRICE: $30 & up HOURS: Tuesday-Saturday, dinner 6-11:30, Sunday, 5:30-10:30. Closed Mondays. INSIDE SCOOP: Get Alberto to rattle off his impressive & lengthy resume (he’s worked everywhere from Italy’s Le Gavroche to midtown’s Cellini) RESTAURANT GIRL RATES (1-10): 7 FINAL WORD: Take me down to the Alphabet City. QUICK CHEAT SHEET: Drink – A bottle of white Verdicchio Marche ($26) with summer starters; red Nero B’avika Donnata ($32) with pasta & meat ; cap the night off with a glass of Richoto D’Amarone ($14 a glass) dessert...
Read MoreFalai
It’s been over a week and fantasies of Falai still linger in my stomach. After building pastry castles in the air at Le Cirque, Iacopa Falai has migrated to the Lower East Side, a sudden utopia where foodie’s dreams come true. While everyone else has been busy trying to impress with the latest trend, it was refreshing to meet someone so uncomplicated, boasting of simple Modern Italian Fare — he knew what he had to offer. He wined and dined me by candlelight in his sleek new white digs. From the moment I laid eyes on the impressive bread menu (compliments of the house), it was love at first bite. I don’t like to pick favorites and luckily, I didn’t have to because Falai let me have my way with the entire...
Read MoreA Voce
So maybe I was that annoying girl in junior high who ran to the front of the line at recess, and I may have crossed the starting line before the official even blew the whistle, and just maybe, I ate at Andrew Carmellini’s A Voce on opening night. A restaurant girl never tells. Of course, I’ve been warned by countless critics to wait until after a restaurant had fine-tuned the food and ironed out all the wrinkles, but I was, well, I was hungry. By the dark of night, I scurried down to Andrew Carmellini’s new pad on Madison & 26th, a practical culinary wasteland except for Alex Urena’s new digs only blocks away. You might want to sit because what I discovered may astound you. As if he’d moved in months ago, he seemed surprisingly at home in...
Read MoreQuartino
BLAND DATE: It was a beautiful summer night, love was in the air and I was determined to find it, so I turned to a friend for a last minute set-up. I wanted to dine under the moon with someone new and different. He suggested someone who’d just moved to the East Village with an extensive knowledge of Italian, homemade pastas and organic wild salmon. When I arrived, my hostess shuffled me through a narrow dining room to a dark back alley and disappeared leaving me without so much as a menu or a waiter. What should’ve been a luminous moon hanging over my head was a menacing fire escape and the garden seemed suspiciously more like an alley cramped with strangers. With the heat of the kitchen exhaust blowing gently against my neck, I started to sweat...
Read More