4. The menu won’t be cornered by tradition.
Originally, Curtola planned for the menu to be regional Italian, focusing on northern Italy in winter and southern Italy in the summer. But he realized that some of the dishes he knew from working and traveling in Italy were lost in translation once they got to Brooklyn. “I feel like a lot of that food works because, you’re in Italy in a 150-year-old dining room, and there’s an old person in the back making the food,” Curtola says. He’s settled on what he’s calling “Italian-leaning seasonal New York” with distinct menu sections for antipasti, primi, secondi, and contorni.
“The focus on Italian food is kind of, honestly, a breath of fresh air for myself and the team,” Curtola adds. But he won’t be cornered by tradition, allowing himself and his team room to create a dish you might not see in a specific region of Italy, but wouldn’t be out of place there, either.
Like at The Four Horsemen, sourcing will drive the cooking — both from local markets and from Italy. The menu will change with the seasons, but not as often as the one across the street. Curtola is maintaining a few anchors on the menu that guests, particularly regulars and those in the restaurant industry know they can return to. That includes housemade focaccia with whipped ricotta accompanied by a seasonal vegetable; it’s roasted cherry tomatoes, to start. Pastas will always be on offer, with a gluten-free substitution available. For the opening, expect farfallone with Calabrian chile butter and smoked pancetta, plus several others like bucatini, farfallone, trofie, and gnocchi sardi. A lamb sausage, accompanied by avocado squash and cherries for the summer, may also stick around.
The contorni, or simple sides served in Italy, are far from an afterthought. “The marinated peppers are one of the best bites I’ve had in a really long time, anywhere,” McMillan says. Grilled on a binchotan, they’re marinated with vinegar, olive oil, and lots of herbs, and left with a good amount of bite like the peppers Curtola tried at a restaurant in Piedmont.
Dining and Cooking