Maialino
Maialino, the latest in a string of hit restaurants from Danny Meyer, attempts to give elegant treatment to the cooking of humble Roman trattorias. He succeeds.
We started with the salumi misti, a plate of cured meat and olives that shows why Italian bar food beats any other culture's without much effort. We especially loved the spicy sopressata and smoky, vanishingly thin speck. So pink! So fresh!
Next up was an appetizer special, soft shell crab with spring peas and mint. The peas were poppingly crisp, but the sauce's hint of mustard made the dish.
"Maialino" means roast suckling pig in Italian, so obviously we had to order more pork, this time in the form of the malfatti, a terrific dish combining buttery pork, sharp arugula, and creamy torn pasta. A bowl of tonnarelli cacio e pepe delighted us in its wholesome simplicity. (Hey, we're easy.)
Appetizer-sized portions meant we had room to see how Indiana-born Nick Anderer handled Italy's other specialties, including pollo alla diavola (excellently spicy and moist), chocolate and hazelnut bread pudding (not-so-excellently sweet and moist), and olive oil cake (satisfyingly lemony and moist).
We started with the salumi misti, a plate of cured meat and olives that shows why Italian bar food beats any other culture's without much effort. We especially loved the spicy sopressata and smoky, vanishingly thin speck. So pink! So fresh!
Next up was an appetizer special, soft shell crab with spring peas and mint. The peas were poppingly crisp, but the sauce's hint of mustard made the dish.
"Maialino" means roast suckling pig in Italian, so obviously we had to order more pork, this time in the form of the malfatti, a terrific dish combining buttery pork, sharp arugula, and creamy torn pasta. A bowl of tonnarelli cacio e pepe delighted us in its wholesome simplicity. (Hey, we're easy.)
Appetizer-sized portions meant we had room to see how Indiana-born Nick Anderer handled Italy's other specialties, including pollo alla diavola (excellently spicy and moist), chocolate and hazelnut bread pudding (not-so-excellently sweet and moist), and olive oil cake (satisfyingly lemony and moist).
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