Posts from the ‘Italian’ Category

Dec 24

Acqua Santa

Christmas Eve was the perfect night for a Dyker Heights festive lights
excursion. Under the circumstances Italian food made sense, but I was kind
of hoping for Bensonhurst style L&B Spumoni Gardens, not
Williamsburg fare. But thats how things turned out. Fornino, the new brick
oven place, wouldve been my first choice, but pickings are slim the night
before big holidays and they were closing up shop right as we approached the
door. This scheduling issue was mildly compounded by my dining companions
dietary restrictions. I totally wanted to try Spike Hill across the street,
but I feared theyd make me go to Pita Power if my eyes even wandered that
direction. Aqua Santa, around the corner, was the compromise.

All I had was quesadilla type pizza stuffed with robiola, prosciutto and
red onions and what seemed like an abnormal amount of malbec for splitting a
bottle of wine, so I didnt sample a wide swath of the menu. No complaints,
honestly, though its doubtful I'd return unless in the company of
Williamsburg vegetarians.

Acqua Santa * 556 Driggs St., Brooklyn, NY

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Dec 17

Savoia

Savoia has reasonable prices, better than average pizza, and is a little more inventive than many of the Carroll Gardens (or is this Cobble Hill? I get the borders confused) red sauce restaurants I like to avoid, but its probably not a draw if you live outside the neighborhood. Smith St. is pretty blah despite everyone seeming to bestow it restaurant row status. We were going to try the new, probably mediocre Cuban place, but it was full as new restaurants often are. Savoia, with free tables and a warm glow, beckoned from across the street.

I had reservations about ordering the fattoressa pizza (spinach, gorgonzola, sausage, mozzarella), not because it didnt sound enticing, but because somehow saying the word fat might make me seem fatter myself (this is the sort of bizzarro self-consciousness that a skinny individual would never even consider). Though I've ordered lardo without giving a thought to being viewed as a lard ass. So, the fattoressa was fine, if not a touch over-charred around the edges (I know, wood-burning ovens and all that).

With the number of yet untried restaurants clogging Smith St., it'll probably be a while before I return. Thats the problem with these types of establishments. I've never had a horrible meal in the neighborhood, but I've also never been revved to revisit a place.

Savoia* 227 Smith St., Brooklyn, NY

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Nov 29

‘inoteca

I'd just gotten over a week-long severe stomach illness and was ravenous,
and strangely my normal food cravings were totally absent. Not wanting any
form of Asian food isn't like me. I feared my body had gone through some
bizarre realignment after barely eating for seven days when I found myself
wanting either German, English or Italian cuisine. I think it was their
perceived heartiness that was appealing.

I love the idea of lots of little things, but invariably small plates
leave me eating leftover Thanksgiving turkey a couple hours later. We
should've ordered at least four things, but I felt like we were being capped
at three, like that's when the waitress seemed satisfied with our choices.
But then, I'm self-conscious about things like eating alone in public (which
I wasn't) and looking gluttonous (which I am), so maybe I was being
hypersensitive.

I'm bad with Italian food, seriously, pardon my ingredient ignorance,
but I'm going with English terms. The first thing that came from the kitchen
was a warm brussels sprout salad with pancetta, a soft white cheese shaved
into squiggles, and a balanced vinaigrette (I'm not a fan of severe
tanginess). We also shared a special of lamb that came sliced and was
surrounded with a sweet/savory chutney, and prawns wrapped in prosciutto.
The prawns might've been my favorite, though all of it was quite tasty. I
just could've eaten more, that's all. An accompanying polenta might've rounded
out the meal.

I never see celebrities, I'm not sure if its because I don't pay attention
to my surroundings or that I don't frequent their lairs. And oddly, whenever
I do spot one there's a Coen brother connection. Not too long ago Tim Blake
Nelson sat next to us at Lombardis. This evening Frances McDormand and two
gentlemen were seated at the table across from us. They came after us and
left before we did, so obviously they were fine with eating even less food
than we did, or else they're really fast eaters.

'inoteca* 98 Rivington St., New
York, NY

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Apr 20

Remi

I normally wouldn’t eat at someplace like this. But it was assigned to and it was one block from my internship. Who could argue? The food was better than I’d anticipated, too. See my Time Out NY Eating & Drinking Guide review.

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Apr 18

Panino’teca

I'm crazy for a pressed sandwich, and who isn't these days? All the delis in town now have those glossy mass produced signs advertising them. Bye bye wraps. So, it's weird that I've been in Carroll Gardens for a while and hadn't visited Panino'teca yet. I took the opportunity on a rare visit from a friend and Williamsburger (you know how hard it is to convince them to leave "the shire" She's only branching out because she's in a mini-spat with a mutual friend who also lives in her nabe. Yes, I just said nabe.) to check this little cafe out.

James ordered a glorified BLT (hardwood smoked bacon, tomato, red onion, arugula and mayonnaise), and I opted for the capacolla, peperanota, provolone with red chili mustard. Sweet, meaty, spicy and tangy at the same time. Nice. The bruschetta, salads, and cheese and meat plates all sounded worth trying. So many of the family-filled restaurants in the neighborhood just plain depress me, but not this one.

Panino'teca * 275 Smith St., Brooklyn, NY

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Apr 14

Basta Pasta

1/2 This is a crazy Japanese Japanese-Italian place that you could walk by a million times and not really notice. Ingredients tend towards luxe (lobster and foie gras) and portions are small (definitely a nod to the Japanese rather than Italian side). Normally, I might shy away but it wasn't on my dime. I will admit dining is much more enjoyable when cost isnt a major issue. See my Time Out NY Eating & Drinking Guide review.

Basta Pasta * 37 W 17th St., New York, NY

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Mar 5

Caserta Vecchia

I'm so not into the whole Carroll Gardens Italian thing. How I ended up here
on a Friday night is a bit of a mystery, especially since I was in the mood
for a suburban style buffet and James had emailed me earlier in the day
wanting to find a sit-down Pizza Hut for that evening's entertainment.
Caserta is neither Pizza Hut-like nor a buffet. It's just real average
Italian-American type food. My brick oven quattro formaggia pizza was
alright, the antipasto was adequate, James thought his fettucine with ham
was blah. It's just what it was. And then we got into a fight because I
wanted to throw James a birthday party and he didn't want one. How
ridiculous a fight is that? Now Caserta is imprinted in my mind as a
conflict-inducing spot with ok, but uninspiring food.

Caserta
Vecchia * 221 Smith St., Brooklyn, NY

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Oct 3

Max

1/2

This was my way of easing into the new neighborhood. Not a huge fan of
Italian food, I figured I'd venture Max since I was familiar with the East
Village outpost, and it's pretty darn close to the apt. I'm mixing all my
tenses here. It's because we ate at Max before actually moving into the apt.
proper, it's been a month since and I haven't had time to write up mini
review capsules and now the restaurant has already gone out of business,
replaced by something called Fragole (which reminds me too much of Fraggle
as in Fraggle Rock. That's not appetizing). I hope this isn't a curse. Since
moving into the new apt. I also noticed that Red Rail up the street has gone
belly up.

So, now it seems pointless to talk about Max's food, as the menu now
belongs to Fragole, which is Italian but not quite the same. I would've
preferred the space to have turned into a good Vietnamese (for banh mi) or
Mexican (for tacos and tortas) place, but then that would be my neighborhood
and what would be the point of a new neighborhood environment?

MaxCourt * 394 Court
St., Brooklyn, NY

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Aug 22

Bella Roma

Pizza seems so wrong for the tropics, but when in Rome, as they say. Due to the inexplicable volume of pizza places in Hua Hin, our curiosity got the better of us. There were a bunch of similar seeming pizza joints in the touristy area, if one was better than another we couldn't tell. We were seated in an air-conditioned room with British (or possibly Australian–I'm bad at deciphering eavesdropped accents) families who seemed to be having a good time. Not that I take that as an accurate judgment of the food. We split a Hawaiian, I mean if you're going to do pizza in such an unorthodox setting you may as well go blasphemous with the toppings (at least pineapple is a crime in pizza-centric NYC). I can't say the pizza was anything to write home about (literally) but the experience definitely was. Novelty goes a long way with me. Used to big city portions, we were still totally hungry after eating our not so large, large pie. We headed out for equally misguided (yet beguiling) buffalo wings at a nearby bar.

Bella Roma * Hua Hin, Thailand

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May 11

Otto

Enoteca Pizzeria whatever. I'd been wary of the place. The reviews weren't
so hot (something about crust like a cracker) and the crowds allegedly
monumental. Maybe it was the gloomy weather, or maybe it was the 4pm
in-between mealtime arrival, but on Mother's Day, the celebrity pizza and
wine bar was nearly empty. We had lemony, spicy fried chickpeas, and I had
to have the lardo pizza. The toppings were sparse, with just the right
flavor of rosemary, nutmeg and wonderful pork fat. If you got a good bite
that was drenched with olive oil and also contained a bit of lardo, it
created this great slick, salty sensation in your mouth and throat like when
you get a big mouthful of movie theater popcorn from the top where all the
fake butter has pooled. What a great fatty feeling.

Otto* 1 Fifth Ave., New
York, NY

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