A Weekend in New York City
And where we eat when we are in town.
The New York City Rental Market
Our son, Sean, has moved into his fourth New York City apartment in as many years.
Bushwick, Brooklyn
His first place out of college was in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. The area was dodgy, and the electrical meters were wired incorrectly, which was a mess to sort out. So, when his roommate, Amudulat, was hired by The Washington Post and moved to D.C., Sean left too.
Astoria, Queens
His second spot was a studio apartment in Astoria, Queens, just a 10-minute train ride to Manhattan. Astoria was fantastic, and in hindsight, he wishes he had stayed there. But as a young professional working in the city, Manhattan called.
Lower East Side, Manhattan
He signed a lease on a small studio apartment on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side, sight unseen. From the pictures, it appeared to be quite small. “It will be fine, Mom,” he said. It was… fine. And tiny, and noisy, given all the bars and restaurants in the area. He couldn’t wait for his lease to end.
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Sean found a good deal on a one-bedroom apartment in Lennox Hill on the Upper East Side, a quiet and peaceful neighborhood just a few blocks off Central Park. I wondered what the catch was. “The bathroom is pretty small,” he told me, “and it’s on the fifth floor with no elevator.”
There were some holes in the walls of his old place that needed patching up, and he needed some furniture for the new place, since pretty much the only thing that fit into the old studio apartment was his bed. So, we decided to make a quick trip to NYC to help with the move.
Where should we eat?
After nearly thirty years of marriage, Stefano and I have fallen into a travel planning groove. I book the flights and hotels, and he makes the dinner reservations.
“Dove vuoi mangiare?” he asked me? Where do I want to eat?
One of my favorite food writers, Paris-based American baker David Lebovitz, was recently in New York City and wrote about the restaurants he visited, including several Asian spots. We enjoy Asian food, and the authenticity in NYC is probably unparalleled. But while we can find good Asian food in Minneapolis, respectable Italian is hard to come by. So, when we visit New York City, we almost always eat Italian.
This was going to be a quick, working trip. We didn’t have much extra time, and we weren’t packing to go out on the town, so we decided to keep things simple. Pizza the night we arrive, and a seafood dinner at a favorite Sicilian restaurant to celebrate the new apartment.
NYC Pizza Places
Like most places outside of Italy, Neapolitan pizza has a stronghold on the city. A few of our favorite places to enjoy an authentic Neapolitan pizza are Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side, Ribalta in Greenwich Village just off of Union Square, and Song’E Napule, with locations in the West Village and on the Upper West Side.
Roman pizza is harder to come by.
Pizza a teglia, baked in sheet pans and sold by slice, can be found at places such as Farinella and even Eataly.
Montesacro, named after a neighborhood in Rome, makes a decent pinsa romana, a modern interpretation of a Roman-style oval flatbread. The dough is made with a blend of rice, soy, and wheat flours, with high hydration and long fermentation, resulting in a crust that’s light, crispy, and supposedly easier to digest than traditional pizza.
Down in the Financial District, Kesté serves as the official meeting spot for the Roma Club New York, despite being more of a Neapolitan pizza joint. On game days, the private room in the back of the restaurant fills up with AS Roma fans wearing their Roma apparel and scarves.
But, to our knowledge, no place serves the traditional Roman-style round pizzas with the thin, crispy crust known as scrocchiarella. Readers, if you know where we can find that, please tell us!
Located in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood, Montesacro was a little far, so we settled on Song’E Napule on Houston Street.
Despite being known for their pizzas, Song’E Napule offers a full menu. We ordered insalata di polpo and calamari fritti as appetizers. Sean had a pizza alla diavola, while Stefano and I ordered pastas - pasta patate e provola for Stefano and spaghetti alla nerano for me. We treated ourselves to two classic desserts from the Amalfi Coast, delizia al limone and ricotta e pera.
The Mamma e Papà moving company
Fortified, we woke up early the next day, put on work clothes, and headed out to tackle the move. Stefano went to Home Depot to buy supplies and then to the old studio apartment on the Lower East Side to patch the holes Sean drilled in the walls and touch up the paint.
Sean and I went to a Shell station in East Harlem to pick up a U-Haul, then to a storage unit to collect some furniture that a colleague had kindly donated to him, and back to his new place on the Upper East Side to unload. After three trips around the block, a parking spot opened up right in front of his place.
It was going to be tight, but determined not to lose the spot, I offered to jump behind the wheel. The delivery driver waiting behind me as I blocked the street was remarkably patient, and a guy sitting in the car parked ahead of me must have taken pity on me, since he pulled out to give me more room to get in. It was not my best parallel parking job, but I squeezed the truck in, and we proceeded to carry furniture up the five flights of stairs to his apartment.
We returned the U-Haul and met up with Stefano back at the apartment to begin assembling furniture and putting things in order. By the end of the day, we were sweaty, tired, and hungry, but satisfied with all that we’d accomplished. We went back to our hotel to take showers and get ready for dinner.
Piccola Cucina
There are thousands of restaurants in Manhattan and hundreds of Italian restaurants, but when we visit, we find ourselves going back to the same few tried and true places.
Among these are the decidedly Sicilian Piccola Cucina restaurants. Piccola Cucina Estiatorio and Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana are right around the corner from each other in SoHo, while Piccola Cucina Uptown is just a few blocks off Central Park, and Piccola Cucina Casa is in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood. There are also locations in Montana, Ibiza, and soon, Madrid.
Piccola Cucina Estiatorio is our favorite, and we were lucky to nab a reservation. It’s a tiny spot, with nautically themed decor and tables arranged tightly together. Despite the casual, non-stuffy vibe, the service is excellent. The seafood-forward menu offers l’imbarazzo della scelta - an embarrassment of riches, and there is always something interesting on the wine list.
Predictably, we overordered. Antipasti included octopus with burrata and fried sardines, served with a salad of finely sliced fennel and oranges. We then each ordered paccheri ai tre crostacei, a delicious pasta dish with a scampi, lobster, and shrimp sauce. No longer hungry but unable to pass up the opportunity, for secondo we shared a grigliata di pesce misto, an enormous plate of mixed grilled seafood.
Your Recommendations
Admittedly, we should expand our restaurant repertoire. My brother suggested we try Casa Lever, an upscale Northern Italian spot on Park Avenue and 53rd Street, featuring cool mid-century modern decor and a fantastic bar. We thought about stopping by for drinks, but we were a little under-dressed and decided to leave it for next time.
What about you? Do you have any favorite NYC spots we should know about?