I'm giving this place 4 forks not just because I had a solid meal there but in hopes that it generates some buzz for this place. Neel, Caitlin and I were the only people in the entire restaurant for pretty much the whole night we were there, which was great for us but made us all feel a bit sad for the staff there. The location leaves a bit to be desired as it's attached to a blah looking luxury condo building and it's all the way at the end of Broadway in Williamsburg, which is honestly not that accessible by public transportation. So the only people I could see coming here would be neighborhood folks or people willing to Uber it from elsewhere but if you're in the mood for a solid Italian place that isn't super crowded, this place is worth a look.
I chose this place mostly because it's manned by the former chef at Rubirosa, one of my favorite pizza places in the city (looking back at that review, I would have totally up'd it to at least 4.5 forks now). The menu here consists of a cheese and meat section, small plates, pizza, pasta, and a bunch of wood fired meats and fishes. We ordered a little bit of everything: meatballs ($16), octopus ($16), little gem lettuce ($14), clam pizza ($21), and the americano pizza ($19). They started us with some fabulous strips of warm bread served with pesto and marinara dipping sauce - it was a bit like pizza crust but better. The small plates all came out at the same time, which was fine by us since we were all starving but I might have coursed them out a bit in other situations. The meatballs were 3 huge sized ones made with 21-day dry aged beef and herb ricotta. They were moist, fabulous and covered nicely in a red sauce that I sopped up with bits of warm bread left over. The octopus was also very solid - it was one very large and tender tentacle that was the right amount of chew. I could have done without the faro, celery, pesto base underneath as it didn't really add much to the dish.
Then came the pizza - they came with giant pizza scissors but instead of cutting the pizza into slices for us, the waitress just left them there for us to cut ourselves. Not a huge deal but with no other people in the whole restaurant, I thought it would have been a nice touch if she had offered to cut it for us. We came to dinner hell bent on getting the clam pizza but we also wanted a red pie, so the waitress recommended the Americano which had pepperoni, tomato, shishito peppers and roasted garlic. Both were good, solid pizzas if not a bit on the salty side. The clam pizza was served with the clam in the shell which I thought was a bit odd but it was paired nicely with the garlic, mozzarella and breadcrumbs. The Americano was like a typical red sauce pizza and I would have actually liked to have had more of the shishito peppers to bring out the unique flavor of it.
We somehow left room for dessert and got the baba rum and torta caprese. The baba rum was my favorite of the two, with it's rum soaked cake covered in vanilla mascarpone and fresh berries. It was a nice refreshing taste on the plate after the saltiness of the pizzas. I'm not a huge chocolate fan so the torta, which was a fine raw dark chocolate almond tart was only eh to me.
Overall, everything was spot on and we had a enjoyable time there. We were all complaining about the shit show that is the NYC restaurant scene where you often have to wait 2+ hours or weeks to get a reservation at the latest hot spot, so it was nice to have dinner in a low key casual place that ins't necessarily a take out joint. I'll admit that I still like the clam pizza at Pasquale Jones a lot more but it's also $6 more and impossible to get a reservation there unless you show up right when it opens. The pizza at Rubirosa is also a notch above the pizza here but the stars of the show here for me were the small plates. We were hoping that as the night progressed more people would show up but it never did. I'm not quite sure about the longevity of this place but I'm glad I tried it out while I could. Total bill: $78/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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