In Search of New York’s Essential Calzone
During a sweltering afternoon last month in Brooklyn, on a day when trudging along on the sidewalk felt like wading through shower gel, I walked into the original location of Di Fara, one of the country’s most famous pizzerias. It was well past prime lunchtime, around 2 p.m. From all I’d read about the place, there should have been a line of people...
Upscale Italian Restaurant Il Mulino Nabs the Former Scott Conant Space in Flatiron
Il Mulino is on an expansion roll. Just a month after opening a new outpost in Tribeca, the clubby Italian restaurant chain has announced that it will take over the Flatiron space that housed Scott Conant’s restaurant Fusco, at 43 East 20th St., between Broadway and Park Avenue South. A more casual trattoria was located across the street but closed...
Missy Robbins Embraces Simplicity, at Misi
Missy Robbins, the chef and owner of Lilia in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, now has a challenge: distinguishing Misi, her new restaurant, from its older sibling about a mile away. From nearly the moment it opened in 2016, Lilia was a hit with diners and critics, who extolled the Italian menu and her touch with pastas. “I expected Lilia to be a neighborho...
Lillio Cucina Italiana brings Roman cuisine to Cobble Hill
When Lillo Cucina Italiana quietly opened at 331 Henry St. in Cobble Hill last fall, some thought it was merely another “nondescript coffee shop replacing another nondescript coffee shop,” according to Grub Street. Soon, however, the combination Italian bakery and restaurant, headed by Roman-born Giampietro “Lillo” Remia, began to attract local din...
Fall Food & Wine Feste
No one celebrates seasonal food and wine like Italians – trust us. Welcome in the new season with a series of one-of-a-kind tasting events featuring the best Italian food and wine of fall. Learn more about all of our Fall Food & Wine Feste this season and mark your calendars for our very first one: Harvest Edition on September 14 from 6-8 p.m.! Kic...
Pastosa Ravioli: Italian market where you shop like you're back in the 'old country'
Ahhh, Italia! It's a given: The time-honored Italian culture is steeped in the arts, architecture, incredible cars, music, fashionable clothing, fine food and wine -- and yes, family tradition. Within the culture, gathering with family is a high priority and frequent get togethers are commonplace -- especially on holidays and important occasions wh...
Take the cannoli: A New York state of mind leads to Sicily Rose
Milli Joe owner Nick Leichtentritt has always had a special place in his heart for simple Italian cannoli, and he’s planning to bring his favorite dessert to Charlottesville at Sicily Rose, an Italian coffee and cannoli bar opening in September in the Studio IX space. “Sicily Rose is a project I’ve actually been working on and thinking about for a...
Get Your Parm on With This Tasty Food Truck
Michael Paolercio and Christian Prior, both Tuckahoe residents, use their mother’s collective recipes as the inspiration for the menu on their Mac’s Food Truck, serving Italian-American comfort food including sausage and pepper, chicken cutlet parm, and meatball parm wedges. In addition to the aforementioned wedges, the pair is developing an eggpla...
Staten Island Nightlife: LaStrada Restaurant, a longstanding tradition in New Dorp
It's another weekend on Staten Island's summer social circuit, and during this next-to-last weekend of the season we landed in LaStrada Restaurant, a longstanding dining spot in New Dorp -- that originally opened as an espresso house back in the 1980s. According to LaStrada's current owner, Anthony Santisi, who came on board in 1987, LaStrada -- t...
Italian-inspired gastropub Prato 850 succeeds Ciao Baby in Commack
Prato 850, a contemporary Italian-inspired restaurant, has opened in Commack, succeeding the branch of Ciao Baby that had been in the Mayfair Shopping Center. The grand opening of the restaurant is slated for Sept. 1, said manager Raymond Panza. Currently, Prato 850 is "softly" open from 4 p.m., Monday to Thursday; and for both lunch and dinner Fri...
Porto Salvo jazzes up south Bronx cuisine
When thinking of the best Italian restaurants in NYC, Melrose doesn’t exactly come to mind, until now. Primed right on East 161st Street - less than a half mile from Yankee Stadium, Porto Salvo is bringing exquisite, southern Italian cuisine to the borough in never-before-done style. “This area is a food desert and we intend to change that,” said M...
Peppino's wins food and beverage contract for NYS Fair's new Expo Center
Peppino's Restaurant and Catering Group has won the contract to be the sole provider of food and beverage inside the new expo center at the New York State Fairgrounds. But don't expect Peppino's award-winning pizza during this first fair. "We didn't have enough time to get our oven in there," owner John Vigliotti said. The state's Department of Agr...