Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria Visited 10/13/2012 4 Forks

Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria 18 Greenwich Ave., (between Charles St & 10th St), New York, NY 10011

I had been wanting to try Rosemary's for a while but there was always a ridiculous long line full of douche-y looking guys and high maintenance girls, so I've been avoiding it for a while.  But Cicily and I both wanted an early Saturday night dinner, so I had hoped that Rosemary's would be pretty empty that early in the evening.  Oh but I was wrong. The place was completely packed to the brim and the host said it would be an hour wait.  I reluctantly put my name down but was already racking my brain of where else we could eat nearby.  All of a sudden, 10 minutes later my phone rings and they told me my table was ready.  Success!  I run in only to find out that they don't seat incomplete parties so they had to give my table up (the host rudely told me "what did you think I was going to do with it?").  Ugh, luckily 10 minutes later Cicily shows up and they were able to accommodate us rather quickly. 

The restaurant has a rooftop farm, so many of their ingredients are literally farm to table.  The left hand side was more small plates to share and then the right hand side was bigger sized dishes.  We decided to split the housemade mozzarella ($10) and the rosemary foccacia with sea salt ($5).  For entrees, I ordered the cavatelli with oxtail ragu ($14) and Cicily got the orecchiette with sausage ($14).  Drink wise, what's great about the wine list is that they have tons upon tons of options of $40/bottle.  We opted for a bottle of pinot nero which was perfect for the night.  The mozzarella came out topped with tons of olive oil and fresh basil.  The cheese itself was amazing!! So fresh and delicious with just the right hint of salt.  It was paired perfectly with the warm crunchy but soft foccacia bread.  I wish there was a bit more basil on the cheese but none the less the dish was a fantastic start to dinner.  Our pasta dishes came out next and while the serving size was a bit on the small size, it was more than made up with taste.  My pasta was perfectly done (just a bit al dente) and there was a heaping of moist oxtail ragu on top of it.  Cicily had mentioned that her pasta was delicious and that she could have had another bowl of it.  I have to say that compared to all the other Italian hotspots in the West Village, the prices here for their pastas were extremely reasonable and I think much better tasting.   None of the pastas were in the $20+ range which many of the more high end places have started to trend towards.  It's really quite ridiculous when to stop to think about how places charge $20+ for pasta.  But for $14, I, too, could have had another entire bowl of my pasta.  

Given the smaller size of the pasta we both had room for dessert.  Cicily got the vanilla gelato ($5) and I got the tiramisu ($8).  I can only speak for the tiramisu which was wonderful.  It came in this small cute maison like jar where you could see each perfect layer of cream and cake.  I will say that I wish it had a bit more hint of espresso in the cake part but otherwise, it was a great way to end the meal. 

But the time we left dinner around 8:30, there were so many people in the front area you'd think it was the only restaurant in town.  While I most definitely loved the food, I had to dock it 1/2 fork for the slightly obnoxious atmosphere.  Besides just being way too crowded, it was also incredibly loud inside.  It's not really the place to go if you're looking for a nice quiet dinner with someone, but despite that I would still brave the crowds and go back for more pasta please! Total bill: $62/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp