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When the crowds and the wait for a table became unbearable at Second Avenue's jewel box-sized Frank, this offshoot serves similarly heaping portions of pasta and meat dishes to the East Village gentrified. While the pasta is inexpensive and often too piping hot to eat right away, stay away from the meat and fish specials, whose rather severe prices are never revealed until you get the bill—$22 for what?! And it's cash only. The outdoor patio provides seasonal relief in the steamy summer months— however, you can hear toilets flush in the tenements surrounding it, and someone's idea of quaint has been to rig a laundry line with hanging clothes over the dining area. — Andy Bailey

Rigatoni with eggplant and mozzarella, $10.95