Profile

Taking its name from the Italian slang for Post Office, PT is the kind of place you’d want to stumble upon after returning from a trip to Italy, with wooden communal tables, dishtowels as napkins, and elegant details like candlelight and beautiful stemware. A back garden promises al fresco seating, and during the later summer months, home-grown tomatoes. Your bread stays warm after is arrives to the table in its brown paper bag joined with little accompanying bowls of olive oil, and dishes focus on a few ingredients of exquisite quality, expertly combined. Baby bocconcini of buffalo mozzarella come artfully plated with tomatoes and thinly sliced prosciutto; shaved fennel salad dressed in olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt brightens fresh octopus carpaccio. Homemade maltagliati, fresh sheets of pasta “badly cut” into irregular shapes, are a perfect al dente, and hold firm under a sauce of tender braised cuttlefish. To complete the foreign transmutation, an all-Italian wine list shows as much care as the cooking; PT’s proprietors also own DOC Wine Bar. — Abbe Benson