The winter rain was coming down hard and flooding the intersections early on a recent Tuesday evening, as a friend and I sat glumly trying to decide where to go for dinner. A combination of inclement weather and a desire to eat early in the evening meant only one thing: our chances of grabbing a walk-in table at any popular restaurant were vastly improved. So we jumped up with the same wild expression and shouted in unison, “Let’s try I Sodi!”

For 14 years, Rita Sodi’s eponymous restaurant has been one of the most difficult tickets in the West Village. Sodi — who grew up on a farm north of Florence and was once a Calvin Klein executive — has gone on to projects like Via Carota and now, the Commerce Inn, both in partnership with wife Jody Williams. But I Sodi, her first restaurant, remains totally her own, perhaps the only place in town that perfectly mimics all aspects of a restaurant in Tuscany.