Liberty St. to Houston St., Bowery to Greenwich St.
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The menu at this modish neighborhood establishment on Church Street has expanded (with prices increasing accordingly) to include butcher blocks loaded with tasty salumi and wedges of cheese, nourishing stews of octopus tossed with olives and tomatoes in big earthen crocks, and numerous varieties of pasta smothered in country sauces, like rabbit ragù. If you have an urge for a very good linguine alle vongole made with lots of garlic and fresh shellfish, you will find it here, along with numerous salads, a selection of pizzas, and bountiful if somewhat greasy piles of fritto misto and fried calamari. Some of these old hungry-man recipes work better than others. The entrées, though, are big, generous, and generally well cooked. — Adam Platt
Note
Italian-oriented films play on the bar TV, which means you can eat your pasta to the reflected glow of Roman Holiday.
The staff at this place are racist. We were there as a group of 6 last weekend. The waiter, a dark-haired Italian looking guy in his 40's, did not even bring over water for 10 minutes after we were seated. Another waitress dropped a glass that shattered on the floor, spraying water and shards of broken glass on my wife and I. No apology was made. When the waiter finally did bring the water, one of the glasses were knocked over. He did not return with any paper towels to dry our table. The famous bread and oil arrived at our table at the same time as our sandwiches. Overall the experience was horrible and when we left only 12% tip, the waiter in a very loud voice, meant to be heard by all of us, stated "these cheap fuc*ing Indians always leave bad tips". We asked for the manager to discuss our experience but were told by the girl who seated us that he was not available. We will never go to this restaurant again and recommend all to stay away.
Tribeca in the past couple of years has seen somewhat of an explosion of new restaurants popping up here and there, but one eatery still holds my heart and that is Bread Tribeca. From the casual non pretentious waitstaff to the ambience giving off just enough hipness without being too overbearing to the delicious menu and impressive drinks, My husband and I had a wonderful experience. It had been awhile (more than a year) since I last gave this downhome place a try. My last experience was uneventful, however this time more then made up for it. We had one of the new additions to the menu,. the swordfish. We had intended on sharing this dish but I found it impossible to do so, my husband ended up having the chefs special pasta dish; bucatini with pork sausage. Can I say OH MY GOD! It was just divine. We ended the night with two glasses of Brachetto and fritelle. We will definately be back