Posts from the ‘Italian’ Category

May 17

John’s

Ack, red sauce. I'm weird about Italian-American food, but every now and
then I'll concede. Plus, it was a rainy, lazy Friday night and John's is
mere blocks from James's.

With a few of the specials it appeared the chef was attempting to branch
out in odd ways. The bruschetta used guacamole as a base (and was
surprisingly good) and a miso halibut was also offered (didn't take the
bait). The trouble with avoiding red sauce, is that you're generally faced
with lots of white, creamy and fatty alternatives (which I like a little too
much). Regardless, I went the high calorie route. The chicken stuffed with
cheese in a sauce of champagne-glazed mushrooms was downright tasty. I
intended to eat half and save the rest to give my arteries a break, but darn
it if I didn't down the whole portion.

John's Restaurant * 302 E. 12th St., New York, NY

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Apr 5

Aunt Suzie’s

No fan of spaghetti and meatballs, I gave Aunt Suzie's a whirl anyway. This
big portions, small pricetag red sauce joint straddles the line between
old-school and tongue in cheek. Lovers of standards like chicken parmigiana,
fried eggplant and baked ziti won't be disappointed. Everyone else should
prepare to bust a gut.

Aunt Suzie's * 247 Fifth
Ave., Brooklyn, NY

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Feb 17

Miss Williamsburg

I really shouldn't be writing about this restaurant because anything I say
will be clouded by the all-around bad night I was having the evening I dined
there. I had too much to drink before showing up at 11pm (an hour before
closing) and got into some heavy relationship talk (which I never do) and
was irritated by the pretentiousness of putting on the menu how you couldn't
have extra parmesan or lemon in your espresso (not that I would ask for
either, but the fact that they were so overly bold their attempts at
authenticity like some hipster Mario Batalis). I barely tasted my food–a
shared mussel appetizer, farfalle with artichokes and part of a panna cotta,
ended up bawling for no good reason, then getting a $75 bill (which at least
I didn't pay for). All in all, a night to forget. (2/17/01)

Miss Williamsburg Diner * 206 Kent Ave., Brooklyn, NY

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Feb 9

Cafe Centosette

I've probably walked past this place a million times on the way from the 3rd
Ave. L stop to James's. Yet strangely, we've only eaten there once and that
was for brunch.

I was feeling lazy last weekend, so much so, that our fri. evening
consisted of eating at this place less than a full block away and drinks at
the (newly) Irish bar across the street. The food sort of fits that
criteria, as it's nothing you'd travel a long distance for, but a meal is
far from disappointing. The odds are anything you'd order would be better
than what you could whip up yourself–and for about the same money you'd
spend buying the ingredients at Food Emporium a block up the street. I had
fettucine alla vodka with ham and shrimp, a glass of house red wine, and a
cannoli and it while it didn't put stars in my eyes, it put more of a smile
on my face than Pizzeria Uno, or most of the other restaurants in a
two-block or less radius, would have. (2/9/01)

Not bad, but never amazing. I was feeling lazy, ordered fettucine alla
vodka and a glass of house wine, then just realized that's exactly what I
had last time. Oh well. It'll probaby happen again some time in '03.
(3/1/02)

They moved somewhere on Second Ave. (04)

Cafe Centosette * 107 Third Ave., New York, NY

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Nov 17

Lupa

1/2

First off, the food was amazing. For the meal alone, I'd give four shovels,
but the service left a little to be desired. I was looking forward to my
meal all week and it just so happened that that week's "Time Out NY"
featured the tartufo as a critic's pick, so I was expecting greatness. I
know this is a popular place and Mario Batali is a TV chef and all, but this
isn't Babbo. I thought Lupa was supposed to be easier to deal with, both
price-wise and pretention-wise.

We'd made reservations for 9:45 on a Friday, which was sort of late, but
it was short notice and I rarely end up eating before 10:00 on weekends
anyway. The place was jam-packed when we got there, the bar area was
overflowing into the front seats (which I thought were for walk-ins) and we
were given no indication as to when we'd be seated. It ended up being over
an hour wait and we were seated in the front room at the same time as people
who'd walked in sans reservations only minutes before. I was always under
the impression that people with reservations were supposed to get to sit in
the "nicer" back dining room while the crowded wooden tables in front were
for people who showed up and wanted to wait. It made me wonder what the
point of a reservation was.

I can't say that the long wait put me in a very good mood and by 11:00
my stomach was starting to eat its own lining. However, we ended up doing
the tasting menu, which consisted of an antipasti with various meats and
salami and citrus-cured sardines with a cracked wheat salad, a pasta, which
I think was called bucatini all'amatriciana, a seafood stew with squid,
mussels, chickpeas and other assorted goodies (the server kept ladling and
ladling more soup into my bowl to the point where it was comedic and then
James just got the remains, which is still peeving him. I don't know if the
guy sized us up and was like, "that girl likes to eat" or what), a main
course of which James had the saltimbocca, which is a veal dish and I
ordered the oxtail since I'd heard amazing things about it, but they ended
up bringing us both veal and tried to make it seem like they couldn't do the
oxtail and normally I'm a pushover who never pipes up, but after that insane
wait, there was no way I was going to let them get out of giving me what I'd
ordered. The finishing touch was the tartufo, a big ball of hazelnut ice
cream with biscotti chunks and a rich chocolate covering and a cherry in the
middle. For the quality and amount of food, the $42 tasting menu was well
worth the price.

The food completely lived up to all the hype I'd heard. Almost
everything had a diverse range of flavors combined into one. Like the Four
S's of S.E. Asian food that always keep me happy: sour, salty, sweet and
spicy. Ingredients like sweet onions, raisins, fennel, cracked pepper and
lemon fusing into a memorable mouthful. And this is coming from the girl
who's never been impressed with Italian food. I'd like to go back, but I
don't know if that'll be any time soon.

Lupa * 170 Thompson St., New York, NY

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Nov 2

Frank

It may sound blasphemous, but if there were one cuisine I'd have to give up
for life it'd probably be Italian food. I know, I know, everyone
likes Italian food, right? There's nothing wrong with it; it's just never on
the top of my list when the subject of eating out comes up. And yes, I
realize that not all Italian cooking is based on the meatballs and spaghetti
covered in red sauce formula, but I'm still not a convert.

I'd heard mixed stuff about the place, but thought I'd see for myself.
If the length of the wait to be seated were an indication as to the quality,
then Frank would be a four star restaurant. The thing is, it's just a small
place. They don't take reservations and at 8 pm on a Thursday, I ended up
waiting for about an hour. (They do offer to call you when your table's
ready in case you want to take off, but being the last person on earth
without a cell phone, this didn't do me much good.) Fortunately, I wasn't
fazed by the wait. I was in a good mood since I thought I was just meeting a
boyfriend for a run-of-the-mill dinner and instead he showed up with
flowers, elevating the event to a "date."

On to the meal…I'm not even close to being a wine expert so I ordered
some $10 glass of red wine that I don't even remember the name of. Whatever
it was, my beverage suited the appetizer of mussels in a spicy, garlicky
tomato broth and roasted garlic bread. For the main course I tried the
ravioli of the day, which was porcini and potato. Now that I think about it,
the dish had all the makings of a pierogi, albeit in a cream sauce rather
than dipped in sour cream. Maybe the ravioli was successful in my eyes since
it was moving in a Polish direction rather than being quintessentially
Italian. The meal was wrapped up with tiramisu, which was pretty
tiramisu-ish.

Everything tasted how you thought it would from looking at it. Nothing
was bad, but nothing was spectacular either. I just crave a little more
oomph to my food than Frank delivered. I won't write off an entire cuisine,
of course. I'm still on the lookout for that Italian meal that makes me sit
up and take notice.

Frank* 88 Second Ave.,
New York, NY

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