Lured from his five-diamond (AAA) cocoon at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, new chef-partner Fabio Trabocchi delivers complex dazzle at Stephen Hanson’s Fiamma. Movie-star handsome, he reinterprets Italian classics, sights set high above the honky-tonk of Spring Street. A roly-poly tumbler of tomato water paired with tuna tartare wrapped and tied in a sorrel leaf on bacalao deliciously heralds the complicated stuff ahead. Dover sole comes as a truly taste-stirring layering of red pepper, olives, lemon zest, and the flesh of the lemon itself with powerful sprigs of tarragon and baby basil. Voluptuous Burrata is accessorized with tomato, three ways, arranged like jewels. Agnolotti of red-wine-braised oxtail and foie gras tossed with chunks of sweetbread and celery root arrives in an intense brodo. This high-wire act is backed with sommelier Ania Zawieja, lured from Robuchon, a $400,000 rehab, a fortune in tricky cutlery, and the latest tabletop, including sumptuous china bowls and dramatically asymmetric plates. Impressed as I am, so much intricacy is not my favorite way to eat. And at times a too-intense sauce sabotages an otherwise brilliant notion, as it does the veal two ways with silken potato purée and hazelnut tuile. Roasted turbot with cipollini and housemade pancetta showily draped in thin slices of raw mushroom would be splendid rescued from the nuggety swamp it sits in. Once he relaxes, I suspect Trabocchi will be fine.
Fiamma
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206 Spring St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-653-0100