Sammy's Roumanian

Welcome, bubeleh. Come, sit your tuchas down next to me, so I can tell you about a restaurant. It's all the way downtown, but once you experience its spirited atmosphere and legitimately good food, you won't kvetch about the schlep. You have a good kepala on your shoulders, so you know I would never steer you wrong.

Annnd with the exception of a couple phrases, we have essentially exhausted my Yiddish. This somehow just didn't feel like the time for "The hat burns on the head of the thief," or "Go take a dump in the ocean."

Introducing Sammy's Roumanian. It bills itself as a steakhouse (and with options like Tenderloin, Prime Rib and Veal Chops, this makes sense), but it is so much more. Situated in a Lower East Side joint with merely a whiff of your Uncle Morty's basement, this Jewish-style eatery serves up Flanken, Kishka and Kreplach to people who grew up on the stuff and to shiksas who have never heard of it before. The restaurant is not Kosher, but the food has that old school, old world angle bubbies have been slinging for ages - schmaltz included (and yes, that would be chicken fat...available in diner-style maple syrup dispensers). Chopped Liver is prepared tableside, Stuffed Cabbage is a knock-out, and Potato Pancakes are a crowd-favorite whether you're inclined to call them "Latkes" or not.

The food, however, is only half the draw. Sammy's is a place for parties, and this is clearly indicated by the limp twists of crepe paper taped to the ceiling and the occasional balloon. Ok, so the decorations are a tad sad, but as illustrated in the many photographs plastered to the walls, patrons over the years (some famous, some not) are anything but. Large groups of friends and families can be found laughing and hollering at every meal.

Why? For starters, a keyboardist is spewing Borscht Belt schtick from the back of the room, asking girls to stand up and twirl while the rest of the guests clap. He's cracking jokes between "Hava Nagila" and "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" and insisting you grab the hand of a stranger in order to do the hora around the tables. He's asking if anyone in the room is not Jewish and then following with, "Well, we can't all be perfect."

So round up the mishpocha for Cousin Ida's birthday, or gather your urban family for a raucous Friday night. Start the meal with a frozen bottle of vodka, try the Karnatzlach, and finish up with a chocolate egg cream. Sure, a milk-based beverage may sound like a terrible idea after garlicky beef, but everyone has to experience chocolate syrup pouring from the height of the ceiling and seltzer spraying from the classic dispenser. Miss this, and everyone will call you mashugana.

Sammy's Roumanian - 157 Chrystie Street, at Delancey Street

Brunch, Part 3 - Splurge Edition

It is time once again to talk about that cherished New York past time - brunch. (Click here for brunch post numero uno and here for la deuxieme. Also, feel free to be impressed by my foreign language skills in that last sentence). Today's theme is splurging. Now, you can certainly leave the following two restaurants having paid a reasonable amount, but you will most likely walk away thinking, "What did I just do?" The sizable entrees are sufficient to get you through the day, but odds are you won't stop there. Hey, when brunch sirens call, (snacks, baked goods, sides, desserts, and cocktails), nobody blames you for giving in to temptation. Well, maybe some people do, but I would never. [Insert high-five here].

1) Cookshop - 156 10th Avenue, at the corner of West 20th Street

Cookshop feels both industrial and warm. What appears to be a polished cement floor is topped with wood tables sporting white surfaces and straight-backed chairs. This, along with a metal encased light hanging over the bar area, gives the room a modern edge. The cranberry banquettes, wall-mounted chalkboard, and potted plants (not to mention the tree in the center of the room) soften that edge. Then there are the impressive floor-to-ceiling windows that serve as the barrier to both 10th Avenue and West 20th Street - if the coffee doesn't wake you up, all that natural light certainly will.

So what do we have here? Pancakes and egg dishes (Cookshop Scramble, I adore your over sized biscuit, your silken eggs with creme fraiche and caramelized onions, and the option of smoked salmon) will run you $12-$15. However, you might want to start your meal with a snack ($5-$11). Say, deviled eggs or sunchoke soup? But you also like the sound of those baked goods - pecan sticky buns, banana bread, a currant scone. Mayhaps a bakery basket for $12? How about sides ($3-$6)? The white cheddar grits are too good to pass up. Will you have room for dessert ($7-$9)? For a coffee cream donut, you make room. You haven't forgotten about cocktails though, and at this point, what's another $12? After a potent strawberry caipirinha, you probably won't mind at all.

When can you indulge? According to the restaurant's website, brunch is available Saturday and Sunday from 11am until 3pm. Walk-ins are welcome, but you'll be better off making a reservation beforehand. Here's a helpful hint, friends - if you have an opentable account, you can make a reservation mere minutes before heading over (provided they still have room). When you arrive, you'll find patrons waiting for a table at which they could have already been sitting if they had just gone online first. Suckers.

2) Freemans - End of Freeman Alley off Rivington Street, between Bowery & Chrystie Street

First off, Freemans is in a unique location on the Lower East Side. With no real address, you find it by first going to Rivington Street between Bowery and Chrystie Street. When you come to an alley about halfway down the block, turn into it and walk to the end. This will lead you to a country style, wood-and-glass door beneath a web of strung-up lightbulbs. It's hard not to feel like you're in on a secret here, and depending on your mood, it can all feel a little magical. Once inside, however, it's all hipsters and taxidermy - but in a good way.

Sitting next to plaid button-downs and Keds while under stuffed geese and antlers, it's time to get down to business. Main dishes include frittatas and sandwiches, pancakes and waffles, which come in at a reasonable $10-$14. You know you're not going to stop there, though. First off, there are Devils on Horseback ($6) and salad options ($10-11), but I'm personally going to order the hot artichoke dip with crisp bread ($10). It is so good that if it wasn't such a waste, I'd want to rub it all over myself - especially after it cools down. (Awkward pause). Brunch may not be complete without a side of thick-cut bacon ($4) or stone-ground cheddar cheese grits ($5), but what about dessert? Don't mind if I do. I'll order the hot chocolate brownie, while you get the bananas foster with rum butterscotch sauce (both $9). We'll wash it all down with Stumptown coffee, and, sure, let's get finely crafted cocktails. They're $12 unless you go for something straight up off the extensive liquor list. I like to mask my mid-day booze with juice and various accoutrements, but to each his own (and other cliches).

According to their website, Freemans is open for brunch on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 10am until 4pm. They only accept reservations for parties of six or more, so if you can't wrangle that many reliable dining partners, your best bet is to walk in with a small group and be prepared to wait. Parties will not be seated until all are present, so tell that one friend who's always late an earlier time than need be, or just cut him out of the equation altogether. Sounds harsh, but there's excessive dining to be done, and that artichoke dip waits for no man.

Union Square Cafe

Twenty five years ago this month, a twenty seven year old Danny Meyer showed up in the New York restaurant scene. You know, the guy who (along with his partners) went on to open Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, The Modern (as well as Cafe 2 and Terrace 5) within the MoMA, the relatively new Mailalino, the closing-at-the-end-of-the-year Tabla, and the expanding phenomenon that is the...(pause for effect)...Shake Shack. It all had to start somewhere, and that somewhere is Union Square Cafe.

Mr. Meyer's restaurants fall under the umbrella of his Union Square Hospitality Group, and the name alone gives a clue as to what it is like to dine at his restaurants - the staff is hospitable. Duh. From friendly hostesses to a waitstaff that actually consults the kitchen when you say you have a food allergy, you get the impression everyone is happy to help. Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but I'm fine with the smoke and mirrors.

Ok, so you're here. What can you expect? Well, the Union Square Cafe is a deceptively spacious restaurant comprised of several sections. Upon entering, you stand beneath a soaring ceiling and approach the hostess stand. The main dining room is to the left of this area down a short flight of steps. Back on the entry level, there is space beyond the long bar where tables are tucked around different corners and nooks. Finally, there is a mezzanine at the very rear of the restaurant, which overhangs one of those aforementioned nooks. Framed pictures decorate the main dining room, while a watercolor mural creeps up the back wall toward the mezzanine. The whole space is tied together, however, by hunter green trim. It's the kind of green women named Celerie, Bunny, or Dale have used to decorate the smoking rooms of the husbands they've outlived named Field, Burton, or...Dale. All in all, it's a space that's both casual and buttoned-up. Though jeans may be worn anywhere in New York these days, men might reach for khakis first.

Ok, you're seated and hungry. What do they have? Well, it's predominantly American food with Italian nuances. Thanks to the convenience of the restaurant's location to the farmers' market in Union Square, the menu varies from day to day. You might, however, expect the likes of a puree of cauliflower soup with brown butter and walnuts. Honeycrisp apple and escarole salad with toasted walnuts, rosemary and pecorino. Pan-seared sweetbreads with crosnes, cippolini onion, and a concord grape emulsion. Then there's the pasta, which comes in half and whole portions and may include ricotta gnocchi, saffron pappardelle, butternut squash tortelli, or duck raviolini. Entrees cover grilled pancetta-wrapped shrimp, New Zealand venison loin chop, smoked shell steak, and grilled swordfish with caponata and arugula.

The menu also includes a section called "Weekly Classics," where a different dish is the special each night of the week. Stop by Monday for the Maine lobster and sweet corn risotto with oven-dried tomatoes. Thursday brings the rib-eye for two. Saturday is your night if you are a pork chop fan. No matter what night you go, though, save room for dessert. Greenmarket plum upside down cake with spiced rum ice cream? Yes. Flourless chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce? Sure. Mint semifreddo with brownie pieces and milk chocolate sauce? Can I get a vat of that to go? No? Then we're fighting.

Make a reservation at Union Square Cafe for lunch or dinner, though walk-ins may try their luck for an open table or a spot at the bar. You will want to plan ahead, however, for your son-in-law's birthday, that business meeting with the St. Louis office, or your aunt's visit from Connecticut. Hey, Bunny's got a hankering for some lamb chops.

Union Square Cafe - 21 East 16th Street, between 5th Avenue & Union Square West

il Buco

Il Buco is an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in NoHo, and it is the epitome of the adjectives so often used to describe places to which people want to return - cozy, rustic, and charming. Illuminated by candlelight and inventive chandeliers, chock full of worn wood, and decorated with hanging copper pots and stacked bottles of wine, the restaurant is a warm haven on a bitterly cold night and an equally enticing establishment on a sweltering summer's evening. You should feel free to swing by on more temperate spring and autumn days too, as it doesn't take extreme weather to enjoy the restaurant's ambiance and more-than-decent food. I promise.

Initially opened as an antique shop in 1994, the space evolved into an enoteca and then a full-fledged restaurant garnering attention from noted food critics and publications. What's important, however, is not the praise of the public and self-proclaimed "foodies" (um, does that word make anyone else cringe?) but that you like it. I mean, I do, so you should too. Right? Sure!

The appetizers (including imported olives in wild fennel flowers and fresh rosemary, a selection of cured meats, and a fried duck egg with salted cod, capers, and truffles) are tapas-style and intended to be shared. Of course, you don't have to go halfsies on your cauliflower and gorgonzola croquettes, but how will you finagle a taste of your friend's Hawaiian king prawns in Trapanese coarse sea salt if you don't give up at least one bite?

Pasta and risotto dishes are hearty and may include pappardelle with chanterelles, fava beans, hyssop, and parmesan or gnocchi with peas, housemade pancetta, mint, and ricotta salata. Entrees cover fish (poached halibut with baby carrots, artichokes, garlic scapes, turnips, and meyer lemon aioli), chicken (Milanese style with a twist), pork (slow-roasted), and beef (grilled ribeye with pan-fried potatoes, spicy marmalade, and cayuga blue cheese).

However, il Buco's menu changes from time to time on account of market availability and freshness. The restaurant's website indicates the chef and owners take pride in acquiring their meat and poultry from local farms, using produce grown from sustainable farming practices, and purifying their water via a Dual-Flow water carbon filtration system. So if the bison carpaccio isn't an option on the day you stop by, rest assured something environmentally conscious and satisfying should show up in its stead.

Il Buco is open for lunch and dinner and accepts walk-ins, though you'll want to make a reservation when you can. They also accommodate private events thanks to a 20-seat wine cellar, a 20-seat chef's table facing the open kitchen, and the willingness to make the entire 70-seat main dining area available to your guests. Please note, parties of 14 or more may be asked to partake in a price-fixed menu.

As for that wine cellar, it features recessed alcoves, is lined with approximately 200 wine bottles from floor to ceiling, and is lit by sconces on its brick walls. Additionally, like every interesting New York establishment, it is equipped with its very own legend; it was apparently the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's story, "The Cask of Amontillado." Now, the eerie tale imbued me with a sense of claustrophobia when I first read it many moons ago, but I would still attend a dinner party in the room that served as inspiration - as long as I make sure to stay soberly alert and to keep bricks and mortar away from my nemesis.

Head over to il Buco with your immediate family for your brother's birthday, with that girl who's way too young for you yet seems so mature on account of her European upbringing, or with an extended group of friends for that one buddy's going-away party. There's a good chance you'll leave thinking, "I liked that place. It was cozy, rustic, and charming."

il Buco - 47 Bond Street, between Bowery & Lafayette Streets

Perry St

First things first - Perry St is indeed located on Perry Street, but its entrance is around the corner on West Street. This information should save you the inconvenience of walking into the lobby of the building's residential section, and it should save the doorman of said section from redirecting yet another disoriented diner. You're welcome.

So yes, the restaurant is located on the ground floor of a Richard Meier building - a building comprised of swanky multi-million dollar condominiums, one of which is home to Perry St chef/owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Needless to say, the restaurant is not too shabby a space. From the outdoor slate tiles by the mini infinity pool-esque water feature, one enters through the glass vestibule into a sleek space of muted tones and minimalist decor with industrial touches. The host/hostess stand is in front of you, the lounge is to the left (beyond which is the coat check), the bar is to the rear, and the L-shaped dining room is to the right.

The lounge area is outfitted with barely-plush couches, leather benches, and knee-high tables under dangling filament bulbs. In the main area, diners sit on white leather banquettes and armchairs at rectangular tables or around high-backed rounded banquettes at round tables. Light in the main room is provided by shaded floor lamps arching over tables and by the sunlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows through which one spies the Hudson River beyond the West Side Highway. Glare is tempered by lightly colored sheer shades, which complement the dark chocolate carpet, light gray cement pillars, and varying hues of wood throughout the room.

Like at other Vongerichten restaurants throughout and beyond Manhattan, you can ultimately count on a great meal with attentive service. Dinner at Perry St will be a smidge more casual than his namesake at the Trump International Hotel & Tower at Central Park West. That's ok, because the prices are a smidge lower accordingly. The atmosphere at Perry St will be less ornate than his Spice Market in the Meatpacking District - less boisterous than the ambiance at Mercer Kitchen in Soho - less stodgy than the nuances at JoJo on the Upper East Side - more refined than the cafe-like touches at Nougatine back at Central Park. That's ok too, because it seems the point of Perry St is a return to basics, in which attention is predominantly focused on the food.

The food at Perry St is American at its core with French and Asian influences. The meal starts with an amuse bouche from the chef, usually a soup, which varies with the season. From there, you may order a la carte or from the price-fixed menu. The restaurant offers a $26 lunch and a $38 dinner, both of which are three courses (two plates and a dessert; additional plates are $13 each). The dinner promotion is offered between 5:30pm and 6:00pm as well as after 9:30pm everyday except Saturday.

Appetizers at Perry St include the likes of a beet salad with goat cheese and champagne mango vinaigrette, crispy poached eggs with caviar and vodka cream, and sweet chili crab dumplings with cilantro and sugar snap peas. Entrees include slowly baked arctic char with white asparagus and basil vinaigrette, fried chicken with a spicy pea puree and pickled onions, and braised rabbit with lemongrass and ginger sweet corn. The desserts are artfully composed as well. At one point, there was a chocolate mousse with crystallized violets on the menu; at another time, white chocolate and meringue with yuzu sorbet.

So make a reservation at Perry St for your favorite forty year old who would prefer a quiet birthday celebration if you must celebrate this new decade at all, for your date with the woman you are finally ready to introduce to your friends (maybe meet them afterward for cocktails at the Jane Hotel five blocks north), for lunch with Calvin Klein and Nicole Kidman who were rumored to live upstairs (in separate apartments, of course) at one point or another. That is, if you actually know them.

Perry St - 176 Perry Street, at the corner of West Street

Table d'Hote

So you know how Le Grainne Cafe was this casual French bistro? Well Table d'Hote...isn't. Yes, it is French, and no, they will not turn you away in jeans and sneakers, but it is less "Let's grab a crepe," and more, "I'll have the seared salmon with accompanying roasted shallot risotto and greens."

Thankfully, the ambiance is not pretentious. On account of the small size of the room, the hutches that serve double duty as decoration and wine storage, the framed drawings of fruit and women lining the walls, the wood chairs with straw seats, the half curtains covering the bottoms of the windows, and the restaurant's location on a quiet side street on the Upper East Side, Table d'Hote is neither bustling like Paris nor decadent like the Riviera. Instead, it feels more like the countryside - cozy, inviting, and informally elegant.

The menu is divided into firsts and mains, but the mains are further categorized into tasting and entree portions. Although smaller than the entree sizes, the tasting portions are not exactly small. On a recent visit, I ordered a bowl of cauliflower and blue cheese soup (a special appetizer that day) and the tasting size of the quail. The plate was loaded with rosemary and ginger stuffing, swiss chard, and a well seasoned bird. The waiter explained the entree size would have come with the same amount of stuffing and greens but with two birds instead of the one. My order was the appropriate size for my appetite, but perhaps it would not have been sufficient for someone who had skipped the appetizer - for someone who had sadly worked through lunch that afternoon - for someone who had not just consumed the beer I had just consumed at the Central Park Boathouse.

As is fitting of a delightful restaurant on the Upper East Side with quality food, a suitable wine selection, and attentive service, the prices are moderately expensive. However, price-fixed menus are available at brunch, lunch, and dinner, so it is certainly possible to enjoy a reasonably priced meal - rendered all the more enjoyable and somehow more scrumptious by the reasonable price.

So head over with that out-of-towner who asked to visit the Guggenheim, that couple you and your wife met while wine tasting in the Hamptons, or your partner of 35 years. If you are gamblers by nature, you can go to the fewer-than-30-seats restaurant without a reservation. Though a craps shooter in casinos, I am less of a risk taker when it comes to dinnertime and suggest calling ahead.

Table d'Hote - 44 East 92nd Street, between Madison & Park Avenues

Bubby's (aka Bubby's Pie Co.)

A few years ago, I had jury duty in the triangle below Canal - more or less cryptically known as Tribeca. When we broke for lunch on the first day, I hoped to find a spot more casual and less expensive than those in the area with which I was already familiar (such as Thalassa, Nobu, and the now closed Chanterelle). I found Bubby's.

As the name implies, Bubby's serves the kind of food grandmothers across the nation may be proud to claim as their own. The website labels the cuisine "American cookery," so a breakfast dish like Gina's Huevos Rancheros may resemble your abuela's in San Diego, the matzo ball soup at lunch may remind you of your nana's in Brooklyn, and the authentic pit barbecue at dinner might compare to your grandmama's in Austin. The menu also includes salads, sandwiches, burgers, pancakes, mac & cheese, and side dishes like hush puppies, collared greens, onion straws, baked beans, and mashed potatoes with chicken gravy.

Bubby's is located on the southeast corner of Hudson and N. Moore Streets. Its floor to ceiling windows allow for a sun-filled room during the day and prime pedestrian watching during the night, as Bubby's is open 24 hours, 6 days a week, and until midnight on Mondays. The main room is spacious with caddies of condiments on wood tables by wood chairs and banquettes across the wood floor. This room is adjacent to Bubby's bakery where all of the restaurant's desserts are homemade and have been since its opening in 1990, when a pizza oven was used to bake pies (noooooow "Bubby's Pie Co." is starting to make sense, huh?).

Lines may be long at weekend brunch, and dishes may cost more than expected overall. Some will declare it is worth it - some will kvetch it is not. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, you have the option of loving/hating/remaining indifferent at the Tribeca location or at the one down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass - more or less cryptically known as DUMBO.

So treat that director whose work wasn't particularly well received at the latest Tribeca Film Festival, that cute potential juror who spent the past two days dreading being called into that side room, or your kids who hate grandma's meatloaf but are willing to eat Bubby's bacon-wrapped variety.

Bubby's - 120 Hudson Street, at the corner of N. Moore Street

dell'anima

dell'anima (immediate side note - they don't seem to capitalize the name on their window or website, so neither shall I) is one of those places that you pass by, glance in, and think, "Well, that looks nice." Any evening, any day of the week or time of the year, this small Italian restaurant seems to glow from within, luring in passersby - much like the grail-shaped beacon upon Monty Python's Castle Anthrax but with fewer sex-starved nymphets.

It is situated both on 8th Avenue and West 4th Street off the corner of Jane Street. Huhwhat? West Village, you so crazy, I think I wanna have your baby...and other Salt N Pepa lyrics. The main entrance is on 8th Avenue, but dell'anima backs onto West 4th Street, where in warmer weather, customers may dine al fresco at one of the seven or so tables lining the sidewalk. Inside the restaurant, customers may sit at the raised table along the left wall, at the standard-height tables throughout the room, along the bar to the right of the entrance, or along the counter facing the open kitchen at the rear left of the space. When these fifty or so seats are filled with guests, and additional patrons mingle in the small space behind those seated at the bar, dell'anima pulses with energy.

Much of that energy is attributable to the staff. The hostesses up front have always been friendly, even when one might be struggling to hear you over the chattering customers in the background, or the other is relaying jackets to the coat check in cooler weather. The bartenders are attentive, whether you are simply ordering a cocktail or eating a full meal at their bar. The management seems eager to please, as noted one visit when a problem with one dish was not only corrected but removed from the bill.

Most remarkable for their liveliness, however, may be the chefs at that back counter. Their presence is felt no matter where you are seated, but if you are offered one of the raised chairs facing them, take it. The resulting show is impressive, as two people handle boiling pastas, grilled items, scoops of this, and pinches of that in what looks to be the tightest of quarters. Sure, a lot of fast-paced effort goes into dishes at other restaurants too, but at dell'anima, you get a front row seat. A rather hot front row seat, mind you, as you are not all that far from those boiling pastas and grills.

So, the food? I like it. I am a fan of the ever changing bruschette, which are served in small bowls with grilled bread on the side. I am also partial to the homemade pastas, as they are typically well composed dishes. Since the pastas are advertised as primi (first courses, after appetizers) rather than secondi (main dishes), the rather small sizes are reasonable. The menu changes fairly regularly - a sign of dell'anima's eagerness to deliver a flavorful, seasonal meal - so appetizers and entrees enjoyed in the past may no longer be available. Fingers crossed more delicious items appear in their place.

Alright, friends. Time to address the salty elephant in the (sleek yet cozy) room. You can get away from dell'anima having had a terrific meal with interesting wine and cocktails. You can also get away with high blood pressure and a serious thirst. As noted in other reviews on other sites, some of the dishes are seasoned with a heavy hand. A heavy, salty hand laden with the saltiest salt that ever salted. During my first several visits, I personally hadn't found this to be the case - but then there was that OTHER time. Oh boy.

I recommend dell'anima for a time when you are in the mood for an upscale neighborhood spot but are tired of your usual haunts. If your neighborhood is not the West Village (as it is not mine either), it can be worth the trek. Try to make a reservation beforehand, as those seats of varying heights fill up quickly most evenings. They are thankfully available for weekend brunch too (Saturday and Sunday from 11:00am until 3:00pm), so don't feel you have to limit your dell'anima dining experience to nighttime. Good food tastes just as delightful in the daylight.

dell'anima - 38 8th Avenue, between Jane & West 12th Streets (rear door on West 4th Street)

Peasant

The name says humble, the prices say, ok, not THAT humble. Thankfully, the food says - I can't talk right now, my mouth is full of Italian deliciousness, and oh, I just dribbled, how embarrassing!

Peasant is located in Nolita, and it has that rough-edged swanky neighborhood feel - all dark wood and exposed brick with industrial touches here and there. You are met by the host/hostess at the door, and across the way to your right is the bar, accommodating approximately ten backless stools. Tucked in that far right corner by the front windows are low benches, accompanied by low tables, suitable for a drink or three before your whole party arrives. Your heels sound loud on the concrete floor as you are led to the dining area at the back, but once you're seated on either the sturdy wooden banquette or a brushed aluminum chair, you take a moment to look around and see it's a welcoming place.

For starters, the somewhat open kitchen at the back of the room looks so inviting, it's all I can do not to pop in for a handful of olives before we get the meal underway. Baskets heaped with produce line the counter in front of the kitchen, and the wood burning brick oven is the star attraction within. The light gives the impression there's a skylight overhead (whether or not there actually is), and the bustling activity of the knowledgeable chefs indicates something special is about to head your way.

What comes out first is a basket of hearty bread and a bowl of fresh ricotta cheese. Maybe they give you butter too, but I can't be bothered with common butter or olive oil when something else this good is available. You now have a moment to look over your menu, and, oh dear, we're gonna need some help. You see, it's written entirely in Italian. That may be fine for basics like "mozzarella," "pizza," and "risotto," but translations are typically needed for the rest. Thankfully, the waiter doesn't make you feel like a mouth-breathing moron as he explains every last dish. You get the impression he's done this before - and he'll do it again for the next party in about six minutes.

Now, I've been to Peasant several times with my family (thanks for picking up the check, Dad!), and I can't think of a dish that has ever disappointed us. Sure, maybe I liked the bocconcini (mozzarella wrapped in proscuitto and breadcrumbs, cooked in a terra cotta dish) more than my non-cheese-loving-on-account-of-high-cholesterol father, and maybe my father enjoyed the orecchiette con cime di rape (ear-shaped pasta with broccoli rabe) more than my non-bitter-greens-loving mother, but none of us have ever thought, "Ew, gross. Why would they do that to us?"

Quick shout out to the polpi in purgatorio (baby octopus with hot green peppers). I can't talk about this restaurant and not mention this ridiculously flavorful appetizer. I'll take two. And another glass of vino while you're at it.

Alright kids, are you ready for the bonus? There's more restaurant downstairs! To the right of Peasant's main entrance is a flight of stairs leading from the sidewalk to Peasant's wine bar. This space is more casual, with diners rather crowded in the small room at wooden tables and along the bar at the rear. This portion of the restaurant has a more rustic feel than upstairs, given the low lighting, stone walls, and close quarters. The vibe is accordingly more laid back. Whereas reservations are typically necessary upstairs, downstairs functions on a first-come-first-served basis. Luckily, much of what is served upstairs is available downstairs as well. Some dishes are missing, but you can still get that polpi. Phew.

I would say Peasant is a great spot for a night out with clients, for picky Uncle Henry's birthday, or a date with that leggy brunette. The wine bar downstairs is better suited to your sister visiting town for the weekend, analyzing your new boy with your old besties, or a date with that chatty blonde. It ultimately won't be the cheapest of meals, but it should be a satisfying one when all is said and done.

Peasant - 194 Elizabeth Street, between Prince & Spring Streets