L’Artusi

The pastas and the wines are the specialties at this large, neighborly establishment which opened a while ago now, among the shiny new towers and condos sprouting up along the Bowery. The room doesn’t have the intimacy or the style of the sister wine-bar restaurant, Dell’anima, in the West Village, but if you happen to live in one of those condos, or are wandering the Bowery on a Saturday morning in search of a solid weekend brunch, you could do worse than calling for one of the ten dinnertime pasta options (the gnocchi with rabbit, the chestnut parpadelle, the pici with lamb neck ragù), or the brunch-time lemon-ricotta pancakes. Dessert included a variety of housemade gellatos the last time we dropped in, and a pleasingly dense version of that familiar rustic Italian favorite, olive-oil cake.