I was excited to try out Andrew Carmellini's first foray in Brooklyn since I've been a huge fan of his other restaurants in the city like Locanda Verde, Little Park, Bar Primi and The Dutch to name a few. He opened up this space in the new crazy William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg - you know the neighborhood has changed a bunch when there are not 1 but 2 incredibly swanky fancy pants hotels within spitting distance to each other.
Vince, Anuja and I checked out the place on a random Wednesday night. When we first walked in, the place was pretty empty (granted it was 6:45) so we weren't sure what to expect. But as the night went on, it did get more and more crowded. The decor is pretty cool - it had this funky cool kid but still old Italian feel to it. The menu here is Southern Italian influenced - there's a variety of antipasti, wood fired pizza, pastas, and wood fired grilled entrees. Of course whenever I go out to eat with Vince, it's quite the production. We start with the sheep's milk ricotta ($13) because you can't go to an Andrew Carmellini restaurant and not order the ricotta, the tuna crudo ($16), the fire roasted cabbage ($14), the burrata mezzaluna ($19), and the spicy sea urchin spaghetti ($24) to share while Anuja got the sea bass ($31) and Vince and I decided to go all out and get the suckling pig ($72) because that's what we do when we go out to eat.
The ricotta was served with hot honey and garlic and warm bread. I'm always a sucker for ricotta spreads (especially the one at Locanda Verde) and this one was good but it was almost whipped too smoothly for my liking, if that makes any sense. The garlic was a nice addition but it was a touch too much flavor as the beauty of ricotta is in the light mild simplicity of it. Next we tried the tuna crudo and this was probably the top dish of the night. It was light, fresh and drizzled with the right amount of olive oil and topped with chili and crispy farro. Fantastic. The other anti-pasti we ordered, fire roasted cabbage, was a surprising winner of the night too. It came as a recommendation from the waiter and to be honest, we probably wouldn't have ordered it without him but we felt like we needed some kind of veggie for the night. It was perfectly roasted with a bit of char on the outside and it had a caesar dressing flavor to it (complete with an anchovy on top) that made it quite hearty and filling. Who would have thought to roast cabbage and that it would be delicious too?
So the night was off to a pretty good start. We moved on to the pasta courses and one was great while the other was eh. The burrata mezzaluna was pretty bland and not that memorable. I guess burrata is best served as a stand alone cheese dish vs. cooked and filled in a pasta. Luckily, the sea urchin pasta more than made up for it. It was spaghetti tossed with a thick gooey sea urchin based sauce and had 2 lovely pieces of sea urchin on top of it. It was a pretty heavy dish so I was glad that we all shared it but it was a definitely the star pasta dish of the night.
Now, this is where most normal people would probably stop eating. But not us. After eating 5 dishes, the waiter wheeled out this enormous suckling pig head and leg to the table. I'm not really sure what I was expecting but I definitely was NOT expecting the entire pig's head - snout and all. I went for the more meaty leg portion first and the area right under the crispy skin was amazing. Moist and delicious with the fat from the skin still attached to it. The skin was a bit tough to chew on, so I didn't really partake in that, which was probably better for my health anyways. But you know probably wasn't good for my health but was god damn amazing? The pork cheek and jowl! Anyone who is a true food lover knows that the meat in the cheek area is the best part of any animal (sorry to all my veggie friends). You have to get in there and cut it up yourself but when you do, you're rewarded with the juicy tender meat underneath. I did try to pick at some of the other parts of the pig and it had dried out a bit but I was so full at this point, that even if it wasn't dried out, I wouldn't have been able to eat anymore of the dish. If you plan on ordering this dish, please know that it could easily feed 3 or maybe even 4 people. It's definitely not for the faint of heart.
Yet somehow when the waiter came by to clear our table, we drunkly decided it would be a great idea to order dessert. This is what happens when you're 2 bottles of wine and cocktail deep. We got the Sophia Loren for Two ($15) because, again, the waiter raved about it. It's essentially a fancy sundae with espresso gelato, chocolate sauce, caramel crumble, meringue, rum granita, whipped cream, all topped with an extra shot of espresso poured on top of it. It tasted just as amazing as it sounds. Sweet jesus is it good but it definitely put us all over the edge for the night.
By the time we left, the place was bustling. I was curious to see what the rest of the hotel looked like since it's quite a unique structure but I was too tired and drunk to make any effort to walk around but I've heard that the rooftop bar is quite nice. While I had a lovely meal here, I still think Locanda Verde ranks as my top Andrew Carmellini restaurant since the pastas there are out of this world. But don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy that he has a post out here in BK to call our own. Total bill: graciously covered as a client dinner
Photo Credit: Yelp
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