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Week of February 4,
2002 |
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the underground gourmet
Team Players
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A good pizzaiolo is hard to find. That's why Salvo Scalia, co-owner of
Carroll Gardens' month-old Savoia, knows he's lucky to have snagged Alfonso
Carusone (pictured), third-generation-Neapolitan pizza man and, until
September 11, the pie guy at Gemelli at the World Trade Center. When that
restaurant was destroyed, its staff dispersed to other kitchens. But Scalia
and his partner, Lisa Nazzaro, reunited three of them at Savoia, their
rustic, wood-beamed restaurant and pizzeria, where the menu reflects the
owners' respective Sicilian and Neapolitan heritage with dishes like
rigatoni alla Norma, bruschetta with caponata, and the classic pizza
margherita, named for the queen of the dynasty (Savoy in English, Savoia in
Italian) that ruled the kingdom of Italy for 85 years. Scalia, who's had
some experience with New York empires-he worked for Pino Luongo and Bice's
Roberto Ruggeri-persuaded Carusone to expand on the traditional pizza
repertoire with newfangled ingredients like shrimp, pears, and walnuts.
"He's not happy putting salmon on," admits Scalia, referring to the
"Norvegese" combination of smoked fish, mascarpone, capers, and truffle oil.
"We had to work it out." To judge by the tender crusts and scrupulously
applied toppings, the two have achieved a satisfyingly tasty, crisp-edged
truce.
—
ROBIN RAISFELD
Savoia
277 Smith Street, near DeGraw Street, Brooklyn
718-797-2727
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event
Bid Two Hearts
In recent years, dining out on Valentine's
Day has become the restaurant-industry equivalent of
Super Bowl Sunday-a compulsory extravaganza that often
leads to indigestion. Bid executive chef Matthew
Seeber's Valentine's menu, by comparison, is more like
Wimbledon, a suave, sophisticated antidote to all the
love-potion hoopla. In between four luxurious courses-warm
oysters with champagne and caviar, roasted scallops
with sea-urchin custard, roasted sirloin with black
truffles, and chocolate tart with chestnut sauce-you
and yours can listen to romantic music and survey some
of the art that's been consigned to Sotheby's and borrowed
by Bid for the occasion. If there was ever an excuse
for wandering eyes on that most intimate of evenings,
Jim Dine's Double Venus in the Sky at Night (pictured,
behind Seeber) is it.
Bid
1334 York Avenue, at 71st Street
212-988-7730
See
our Valentine's Day restaurant picks
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best of the week
Dim Sum Go Go Chinese New Year
The Year of the Horse brings good luck and love to all. Make reservations
through February 10 to celebrate Chinese New Year (February 12 and 13) with this banquet for ten,
a feast that includes duck-and-mushroom dumplings, and dry oysters and
scallops.
Dim Sum Go Go
5 E. Broadway
212-732-0797
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happening
Drink in
the Love 
Throughout February, City Bakery is running its tenth annual hot-chocolate
festival, a good excuse to consume a mugful on the 27 days of the month that
aren't Valentine's Day. But don't bypass the place on February 14, when
owner Maury Rubin (pictured) marks the occasion with "Love Potion" hot
chocolate, served with what killjoys might deem an excessive dose of hot
fudge. To monitor the flavors of the day, which range from mellow
milk-chocolate and toasted-hazelnut to maniacal banana-peel and mango-tea,
visit Rubin's new Website, www.hot-chocolate-festival.com. In an effort to
elicit more public participation than the usual slurping and aahing, and to
elevate haute chocolate into a more cerebral realm, he's posted an essay
contest on the site, and plans to reward the winner handsomely. For a full
year of City Bakery hot chocolate, answer this question: Should hot
chocolate be drunk with or without a marshmallow? Why or why not?
City Bakery
3 West
18th Street
212-366-1414
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Ask Gael
Am I missing something hot?
Sardines served in the can says it all. Ditto the "nice ordinary name" (as
the slightly frazzled co-owner Brian McNally puts it) and the nobody's-home
whitewashed façade. The mayhem at 150 Wooster, with the whole shameless
Almanach of Gotham and twelve other nations scheming to get in the last time
McNally ran a joint all his own, is still vivid. So he's skimping on profile
at Smith, talking about "just a nice neighborhood place." Is that why the
look is so . . . spare? Actually, it's unfinished, he says. Happily, chef
Kenny Addington (Eight Mile Creek, '44,' Picholine) really knows how to cook
and keeps it clean, as in beet-and-blood-orange salad with goat yogurt,
crusted lamb shank with parsnip purée, and an elegant Long Island duck, just
roasted rosy pink. Soon there will be art on the walls and smith in red neon
out front (to compete with the nearby tattoo parlor), and if there's a
lemming crush, McNally will deal with it. "But maybe nobody will come," he
broods. "As problems go, that's not as desirable."
Smith
64 East 1st Street
212-260-3189
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Bites & Buzz Archive
Week of January
28
A Royal feast; Valentine's Day at Daniel; Le Zinc's devilish treat; Brooklyn's answer to Balducci's; Gael's cure for the mid-winter blues
Week of January
14
Craft's new offshoot; a taste of Burgundy's best; Gael on Harlem's renaissance
Week of January
7
Tongue in chic, AKA Cafe's two-timing chef, Gael finds a class act on
the Upper West Side
and
more ...
Photos: From top to bottom- Patrik Rytikangas (2);
Kenneth Chen
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