Depending on what door you use and when you get there, Dimo’s can be a pizzeria, a deli, a supper club, or a sit-down Italian restaurant. Splitting focus like that usually leads to compromises on quality, but Dimo’s inexplicably excels in every department. Dimo’s Italian Specialties (the door on the right) operates in deli mode from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and switches to a dinner menu starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The deli menu is a classy mix of overstuffed grinders and flatbread sandwiches, while the evening brings an impressive selection of traditional Italian appetizers and skillfully constructed pastas.
Like a lot of newer Italian places, there’s also a long refrigerator wall filled with drinks to go, as well as a small selection of take-and-bake options, frozen stock, and various sauces and specialty ingredients.
The pasta bowls here are small in circumference but deep enough for a portion that can feed two comfortably when paired with a salad ($16) and perhaps the crispy fried mushroom arancini ($15).
Lower East Burnside can feel like the Wild West when it comes to grabbing a bite, with some of the city’s best restaurants cheek-to-jowl with an eclectic mix of strip clubs, fratty saloons, and unsavory corner markets. Dimo Italian Specialties fits very comfortably into the first category, with a cavernous yet classy gallery wall surrounding an airy, European dining hall. True to the name there’s a diverse range of Italian specialties on offer, from fried arancini to guanciale-laced zozzona, all impeccably executed.
Dining and Cooking