The Food Maven Diary
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Eating Italian in New York
The question that I am asked all the time is "What restaurant do you go to for Italian food?"
It's a really tough one because I rarely think to go to a restaurant to eat Italian. I cook Italian at home. And, as I have said a zillion times, I would never think to leave the house for a bowl of pasta, even a bowl of risotto. At this very moment, my refrigerator is stocked with all kinds of Italian preserved meats (salumi), cheeses, and vegetable this and that's to serve as antipasti, or even a full meal. The only reason to leave the house it to buy bread – Royal Crown bread from 14th Avenue in Bensonhurst, which they sell in my fancy food store around the corner, Blue Apron, on Union St. and Seventh Ave.
The other day, however, I had lunch at San Domenico on Central Park South, right by Columbus Circle. I realized I would eat there all the time if only I could afford it. The food is genuine, meaning it is really Italian. The place is very elegant, but not silly fancy. And it is quiet, with well-spaced tables and no music. A quiet restaurant, as I have also said before, is the ultimate luxury in New York these days. Given the high prices of mediocre Manhattan restaurants, San Domenico deserves every penny it charges.
Fortunately, Tony May, the owner, is a very old, good friend with whom I often do business. So I get to be his guest at San Domenico. We had business to discuss and so we enjoyed some of his kitchen's excellent food. If you have to know, and I know you do, for a first course I had raw baccala dressed with a touch of olive oil and powdered hot pepper served on toasted brioche. Brioche, by the way, is very Neapolitan, not just French, so that would qualify as a Neapolitan dish. Because Tony is from Torre del Greco, a town on the Bay of Naples, most of the food at San Domenico reflects his heritage, even if not strictly traditional.
By the way, raw baccala, which doesn't taste like raw fish even though Tony likes to call it sashimi of baccala, is becoming fashionable in southern Italy. I had "baccala crudo" at Alia, a famous, elegant restaurant in Castrovillari, in the province of Cosenza, in the region of Calabria. At Alia, the fish was dressed with pickled onions rings, and an acidic dressing sweetened with honey and spiked with both red and green hot pepper. It was pretty as well as delicioius.
After the raw baccala, incidentally, I went on to tiny, tender ricotta ravioli in a puree of Italian cherry tomatoes. I also took a taste of Tony's octopus in a silken sauce of pureed cicerchia, a kind of chick pea with a particularly earthy flavor, and a taste of his spaghetti alla chitarra in a simple tomato sauce with basil. Spaghetti alla chitarra is thus called because it is made by rolling a sheet of pasta on a wired instrument. (I just bought one for myself in Italy, but haven't played with it yet.) It is therefore square-cut. And it should be a little chewy, as San Domenico's is. It is fresh pasta, but made only with flour and water, no eggs.
For a main course, we both ate the same thing, a whole small grilled branzino. That's a kind of Mediterranean sea bass. It was stuffed with rosemary and garlic, which gave more than the usual level of flavor to the fish., and served with a mélange of vegetables that included particularly good sautéed artichokes. There was also a sliced olive and caper sauce on the side. No dessert. I was full. Tony had an apple, which I have to say he peeled with such finesse I would have to call it artistry. We shared a bottle of Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina, a white wine from, in this case, Avellino, in the region of Campania, which is where Naples is.
I didn't eat dinner.
At one point, I turned the tables on Tony for a minute and asked him where HE would go to eat Italian food, other than his own restaurant. He drew a blank. He never goes anywhere else to eat Italian food.
We both agreed that we like to go out for Asian food, or something else exotic that we don't eat at home (or in our own restaurant), or maybe a great steak. Or we like to go to our friends' restaurants, whatever they are. But because we know how Italian food is supposed to taste we rarely seek it in a New York restaurant where it almost invariably tastes … well, New Yorkese is the word I have made up for New York Italian food.
This is not to say that some New Yorkese food isn't excellent. And I love Italian-American food – give me a great veal Parmigiana, as they serve it, for instance, at Bond 45, or Café Fiorello,. across from Lincoln Center -- but that isn't the food that is eaten in Italy today. In the case of veal Parmigiana, it isn't even the food they ate in Italy yesterday. That's strictly an Italian-American dish.
I mentioned BiancaCeleste, and Teodora a few weeks ago. I go to those three Italian restaurants. The first two are quite affordable, too, if very noisy. Also, they don't accept reservations and don't take credit cards. All three are owned by the same chef (with partners), Giancarlo Qualdalti.
I also go to Trattoria dell'Arteacross from Carnegie Hall (tell them Schwartz sent you, if you go), the aforementioned Fiorello across from Lincoln Center (try chef Brando's open-faced lasagna among many other New Yorkese productions), and Bond 45, just off Times Square on 45th St. -- all superior restaurants owned by my friend Shelly Fireman.
As for Italian-American food, I do have fun at Bamonte in Williamsburg, the oldest restaurant in the city of New York, founded in 1900 and still operated by the same family. Although not all of the food is of equal stature at Bamonte, it takes me back to old New York. Besides, I very much like the stuffed clams and the chicken scarpariello. I take an old-time Tortoni in the white paper "soufflé" cup for dessert. Also for old-time sake, I go once in while to Fiorentino on Ave. U in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. Owners Antoinette and chef Mimi Fiorentino fed my parents and their friends at least once a week.
Okay, so there are more Italian places I like than I let on at the beginning of this newsletter. I suppose I have to mention Frankies Spuntino. There are two locations, both owned by two hip chefs, each named Frankie. One is at 457 Court St. in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The other is on Clinton St. on the Lower East Side. They have quirky, snacky, inexpensive, southern Italian menus – mix and match small dishes, mainly – which are fun to run through when you are in a group of four or more. The only downside is that, because the spaces are small and full of young hipsters, there is a lot more noise at the Frankies than at the sophisticated and very adult San Domenico.
For a really refined but still genuine Italian meal, San Domenico can't be beat. Besides the food of his chef Odette Fada, one of the few top women chefs in New York, Tony May also invites guest chefs from Italy. This last week San Domenico featured chef Peppino Aversa of Il Buco Ristorante in Sorrento. But there will be more. For reservations at San Domenico call 212 265-5959 or fax 212 399-5672 or e-mail sandomny@aol.com. And tell them Schwartz sent you.
