Talk of the Town

I finally made it—made it as in paying a visit to one of the hippest, most talked about restaurants in this town. Opening this summer, Rosemary's Enoteca & Trattoria has been packed to the brim since it opened its doors months ago (a no reservation policy helps ensure that), and I had been dying to go.

This place certainly has the ambiance thing done right. It's spacious, luminous (floor to ceiling windows for day time and strung lights for night time) and covered in shrubbery. The green life is a nice tie in for the rooftop garden housed above the restaurant that supplies the vegetables for the various dishes on the menu.

The before and after was the main topic of our conversation. Our before consisted of three verdure and two focacce breads. The amazing trio we tried were the beets/hazelnut dish, the zucchini crudo (my favorite) and the radish/thyme dish. And since our idea of Italian dinner always consists of a "bread basket," we ordered the caprese foccacia and the foccacia di recco filled with stracchino cheese. The latter was like an Italian ooey gooey grilled cheese and some of the best bread I've tried. Last but not least, we ordered the homemade mozzarella because no good Italian feast can go without some mozz thrown into it.

Then came the middle portion of our meal and just like the middle child in a large family it was not our favorite. We all went the pasta route but were not blown away like we had been with our appetizers. The spaghetti al pomodoro, as classic as it sounds, was the best entree I tried as it transported me right back to Italy (makes sense considering all their pastas are homemade). My friends said the orecchiette pasta dish with homemade sausage was another must order. Going in for the kill, we decided to order dessert and went with the chocolate hazelnut semi freddo and olive oil cake. Both desserts were exactly what we wanted to end the night with and the perfect thing to keep the conservation about Rosemary's going.

Places of Interest:
Rosemary's Enoteca & Trattoria
18 Greenwich Avenue (at the corner of 10th St.)
http://www.rosemarysnyc.com/