Arrivederci, ramen, and bibimbap — it’s celebration season for Italian meal fans. A 1/2-dozen remarkable new and new-ish restaurants are re-energizing New Yorkers’ favorite cuisine.
This fresh crop isn’t obsessed with red sauce or overworked Tuscan recipes. Instead, it displays effects from up and down the Boot among Italy’s Alpine and near-North African extremities. Although many places declare inspiration from one specific vicinity, they’re more often than not pan-Italian — a great issue until you’re a grinch about “authenticity.” A notice: These marketplace-attuned menus exchange greater than most, so don’t be surprised if the dishes cited here aren’t there while you go. But both manner, you’ll Mangia bene.
Who knew that timid Upper East Side tastes could tolerate a lot of pride? At this stylish corner spot, in which images of silent movie famous person Rudolph Valentino festoon the partitions, executive chef Matteo Limoli’s hearty, richly conceived Italian classics almost make you nostalgic for iciness. His menu makes a specialty of important- and northern-Italian dishes, unlike at owner Antonio Sinese’s eating place in Milan. The Osso Bucco risotto ($36) becomes higher than any I’ve had in Italy, and artfully textured pasta — which includes cavatelli with octopus Genovese ragout crackling breadcrumbs ($25) — bear in mind Michael White’s great paintings at Marea.
This multiroom extravaganza — a collaboration among TAO Group and Francesco Panella, the man in the back of Williamsburg’s hot Antica Pesa — can be as ferociously loud as the call indicates. But the David Rockwell-designed area is also remarkably grown-up, with its heat glow, secure cubicles, and striped leather-based banquettes inspired by antique Ferrari upholstery. Start with gnocco fritto ($sixteen), a whirl of fried dough with pistachio mortadella, and a Parmigiano-Reggiano “cloud.” My favored pasta is the irresistible casarecce alla Luciana ($28) — tactile, twisted noodles rich with octopus, tomatoes, olives, and capers. A salt-crusted, marketplace-rate sea bass flamed tableside (“in most cases for presentation,” they admit) occasionally emerges dry. However, the spectacle’s a lot of fun because of the lively, international crowd.
Some exceptional homemade pasta on the town flows from the open kitchen at this convincingly rustic, Piedmont-stimulated Crown Heights spot. James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing” slightly dents the phantasm.
Owner Alessandro Trezza chooses substances with sustainability in their thoughts. Everything’s organized with loving detail: a glowing salad of arugula is crowned with multicolor heirloom tomatoes, crisp, skinny peach slices, and crackling sliced almonds ($14). Tagliatelle with braised venison ragu ($24) is a pleasure; don’t leave out well cream-loose, cheesy-eggy tonnarelli pasta carbonara with braised guanciale ($19). A grilled octopus tentacle ($18) sported tongue-tickling suckers and exceptional-smooth flesh inside.
You’d better love herbal wines — “continually the solution,” a signal claims — because they have a hundred. If they’re no longer your cup of booze, there’s an extended list of Italian vermouths and vermouth-based total cocktails.
It’s worth managing the racket and cramped quarters for chef Stefano Secchi’s delicious Emilia-Romagna creations. Pasta picks are the menu’s coronary heart, and they may be devoured in a $90, nine-path tasting that’s filling enough to fill you through the fifth item. They’re all meticulously al dente and sensuously composed like Novo raviolo ($24 an l. A. Carte) filled with egg yolk and surrounded using morel mushrooms and black cakes. But different mains preserve their own, such as a luscious sea bass filet ($28) on a pillow of Fagioli, peas, and black garlic zabaglione.
At ultimate, an elegant, modern Italian eating place in the South Street Seaport/FiDi place. It’s in part swallowed up through the massive Corso Como layout keep, but the glowing present-day setting — entire with big spherical booths, ideal for lingering over a lengthy feast — pops first-timers’ eyes. Chef Jordan Frosolone’s menu isn’t as regular as it is probably, but its excessive aspirations and frequent successes are a miracle amid the nabe’s mainly vintage-school pasta warhorses. Exciting saffron- and Parmigiano-wealthy risotto Milanese is a terrific bargain at $19. Other standouts include killer pork loin ($38) and bone-in beef rib-eye ($ fifty-eight). Seaport travelers hoping for Italian-American a hundred and one are probably disenchanted.
