Results tagged “10downing”

This week Frank Bruni at the Times bestows two precious stars on Greenwich Village restaurant 10 Downing. It's a big deal for chef Jason Neroni, who, as Bruni observes right at the top, has had his troubles. But that was then, this is now: "I seldom had the sense that Mr. Neroni was showing off, which he’s been known to do. What was strongest about the best dishes wasn’t some fanciful conceit or adornment, but rather the quality and preparation of the centerpiece ingredient." Still, bring your hearing aid, for the "din can be excruciating."

This week Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice reviews Motorino, the wood-oven pizza place in Williamsburg named after a Vespa-like scooter. He says the prices are reasonable and the pies first rate: "Stippled with char, smoky, and slightly doughy, the marguerita ($10) stands up to any other I've tasted...Even more amazing is the Pugliese pie, name-checking the southern Italian region where many Brooklynites came from. This pizza deploys broccolini and sweet sausage, and who'd imagine bitter greens would make such a fab topping? These pies might be called 'back constructions' by a linguist: They re-import the true pies of Naples to New York 120 years after they first arrived, and then slap Italian-American ingredients on them."

This is Plated, a new feature that delivers the origin story of a dish as told by a restaurant’s owners, chefs, and even once in a while, its dishwashers. Our first plate comes from recently opened 10 Downing.

    

For anyone out there who still has money to spend at restaurants (congratulations one person; need arm candy?), here's 10 Downing, which officially opened last night in the West Village after a long delay. (It was originally scheduled to open over a year ago.) Chef Katy Sparks, who has developed quite the following at the Upper West Side restaurant Compass—and Soho's Quilty's—is teaming up here with Jason Neroni, whose pedigree includes Porchetta and the Tasting Room. Their menu emphasizes (surprise, surprise) "seasonal ingredients" with a Mediterranean influence; one appetizer, the pickled mustard seed chorizo quail egg, is a veteran of Neroni's Tasting Room menu.