Goodfellas - and Goodladies too! A rainbow flag waves over Tuscany...Aug 14 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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Amid a flurry of write-off activity, I have found yet another fine restaurant that the Epinions community cannot do without. No specific listing for it, of course, so I just put it where I thought it fit best. Last night I dined at Goodfellas Kitchen, at 91 Christopher Street, New York - telephone (212) 647-8315. Atmosphere - 10 out of 10 Goodfellas has a separate take out section, which looked clean and efficiently run. The main restaurant area has character and panache. Exposed brick walls are hung with vintage china plates, painted in turn of the century style. I loved the old oil painting that looked, to my untrained eye, like an authentic early 18th century Dutch group portrait. Modern light fixtures covered with layers of gold mesh send flattering light on the room and the patrons, and snowy linens, glowing table votives and tiny fresh carnations grace each table. You feel like you’re in someone’s NYC dining room. It’s a wonderful mix of old and new. Note that it was a rainy and steamy August night in New York, and the floor-to-ceiling glass doors that front onto Christopher Street were wide open. Yet the temperature was comfortable inside – cool and pleasant. I have no clue how they did this – it didn’t seem to be air conditioning. Perhaps the doors to the garden area out back were open and we were getting a breeze. Service – 9 out of 10, and Wine Selection – 10 out of 10. Our lovely waitress, in addition to having a stunner of a smile and a musical voice, was a seasoned professional. Her wine recommendation was a bit noncommittal at first, but after I clarified what I wanted (Something dry.”), she insisted that I try the merlot. For a “house wine by the glass”, the merlot was incredible – dry as promised, with cherry and berry tastes, all over a rich, solid finish. It smelled as good as it tasted, and I found myself sipping slowly so as to savor the color, smell and taste. Note that the regular wine list is thoroughly respectable and well priced. Throughout the meal she was attentive without being intrusive, and a gentleman I took to be the owner stopped by to make sure all was well. This is the hallmark of a really good restaurant, in my humble epinion. It was hospitality at its’ finest. Food - 9.5 out of 10 – Pricing 9 out of 10 The extensive, but not overly ambitious menu made deciding hard. I wasn’t in the mood for pizza, but a wide selection of pastas and salads are offered. After due consideration, we decided. The appetizer was the best rice ball I have ever eaten, bar none. For those who do not know, a rice ball is just that – Arborio rice, fresh mozzarella cheese, a scattering of peas for interest and flat leaf parsley for zest. The resulting treat, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, is rolled in fine breadcrumbs and fried to a golden brown. Goodfella’s gilds the lily with grated slivers of fresh Parmesan cheese, and serves it in a pool of delectable pink vodka sauce. At $9.95 for four, this is a gastronomic extravaganza at a severe discount. For dinner, I ordered the Hail Caesar Salad Gorgonzola with a single Maryland style crab cake on the side. The salad, a mound of fresh cold romaine bits, was just what I wanted on this hot, damp evening. The Gorgonzola chunks were huge, soft and plentiful, contrasting with the flavors of fresh ground pepper and fresh Parmesan. I am afraid I gave my dining companion short shrift on the conversational front for a few minutes there. The texture and the taste were just too distracting. The crab cake, while not the best I ever had, was still up there in the top five. It graced the plate accompanied by fresh lemon wedges, a ramekin of lemony tartar sauce, and a pile of shredded carrot / jicama slaw. Those tiny little yellow and orange strips were pickled in cold vinegar, and gave a refreshing zip to the dish. Whoever invented this knew the perfect remedy to a steamy NYC evening. The crab cake contained just a bit too much filler for my taste, but it was all top quality stuff, and I could barely finish my salad as a result. My dining companion ordered the grilled pork chop. It arrived with a crusting of fresh herbs – I could smell sage prominently. Grilled mixed vegetables, including a couple of oven roasted potato wedges, were arranged around the two, large center sirloin pork slices. A bite was offered, and I accepted. Tender, perfectly cooked pork that had never seen a freezer danced a waltz on my tongue with the sage and other herbs. Wow! This was Tuscan cuisine at its’ best. A sip of merlot immediately afterwards conjured up images of the gold tinted light slanting over the hills of Assisi. The desserts that passed looked incredible, but I was stuffed and a bit tired, more due to the hour than any heaviness of the meal. I ordered coffee, and it was perfect. After everything else, I expected nothing less. On a subsequent visit, I may try dessert, and then feel confident giving this place the 10 I know it deserves. (It may seem unfair to deduct half a point just because I was too full to try something from part of the menu, but if I haven’t tasted it, I can’t recommend it.) Dinner for two ran around $50.00 with wine – an impressive bargain in an expensive city. People watching and eavesdropping – 9 out of 10 This place is in Greenwich Village, known as New York’s gay center, though good schools and quaint housing have led families of every demographic to call it home. The fact that it’s New York City makes the people watching interesting. The fact that the local populace is very free in its’ self-expression makes it a multi-cultural experience in itself. Some examples: two “ladies” seated to my right, one an improbable blonde, the other an equally improbable brunette, were fascinating. It was like a train wreck – awful, yet I couldn’t look away. Their hair was huge, their slinky outfits were straight out of the Sopranos’ wardrobe trailer, jewelry and nails were everywhere. The owner seemed quite taken with them. Compounding the visual interest here were the two younger ladies at the table next to them, whose approach to makeup and hairstyling seemed to be “less is more, and none is even better”. My dining companion summed it up succinctly - “If you took half of that stuff off those two and put it on the other two, they’d all be fine.” (And yes, folks, I am sure that they were in fact, real ladies. I did a surreptitious Adam’s Apple check on both to be sure.) The four gentlemen behind us were having a rowdy old time of it, but even their piercing giggles didn’t detract from the charming atmosphere. “Oh nooooo. No, he didn’t!!”, one stage-whispered as his friend recounted a hilariously lurid story unfit for printing here, before they all dissolved into gales of laughter. All in all, it was convivial, and the location kind of lends itself to idle speculation about who is merely dining together, and who is “together”. You just don’t know, and it adds to the overall interest. On the street, near the French doors by our table, a parade of all shapes and sizes of New Yorkers passed – gym-bodied muscleheads, Alsatian-walking ladies who lunched, suited bankers, club kids, perambulating NYPD officers. All this just underscored the fact that we were dining in the middle of one of the greatest cities in the world, still pulsing long after most of America had rolled up its’ sidewalks for the evening. The rain brought out an exuberance in those who passed; more than one smiling face was pointed skyward, more than one pair of hands was held. If it had been snow falling, I would have thought it was Christmas. As it was, the warm feeling I had as I left had little to do with merlot, crab cakes and coffee. Now that’s a restaurant, folks! I guarantee I will return to this wonderful eatery in the near future.  |
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