Angolo SoHo Is Down On the Corner

Adam Platt heads to the corner of Grand Street and West Broadway to weigh in on Italian new comer Angolo SoHo. He takes a few jabs in a pretty overwhelmingly negative review, but doesn't close without mentioning what works well at the restaurant. Chef Michael Berardino, formerly of dell'anima and Cannibal, is responsible for the "comfortingly generic items" on the menu that are offered in a room whose "tables are outfitted with orange café chairs that look like they’ve been purchased on sale at some Ikea remnant store on the outskirts of Milan."

Berardino's pastas "aren’t as accomplished as those at the grand, multi-star pasta palaces around town, but if you’re looking for a little sustenance while wandering this carb-challenged shopping mecca, you could do worse." Saving graces are 26 wines by the glass and Emilio Bagnoli, "who appears to be Angolo Soho’s owner, or maybe its maître d’ (or maybe both)," with his charming, practiced tango he dances in shoes seemingly borrowed from Sirio Maccioni.

Platt cites "problematic location" and "generic decor" as a few blemishes to Angolo SoHo's perfection, and most of the desserts "won't win any prizes." He gives the restaurant one star out of five in a review that is the first from the critics to investigate the explosion of Italian restaurants to land within a few blocks of one another in SoHo. Still in the cross hairs are Galli, Isola Trattoria e Crudo Bar, and Principessa, all Italian restaurants to open in SoHo within the last six months. Who heads where next?

Adam Platt, in the Parlour Room, with the Chicken for Two

Adam Platt recently visited The NoMad and left it with a two-star review.  He enjoys the "flawlessly executed egg appetizer" and "best of all" are the "snow peas, flavored with mint, Pecorino, and little hidden nuggets of pancetta."  He finds "the weakest part of the menu are the snacks, but after that Humm’s cooking begins to click into high gear, like a well-engineered European sedan."

Due to the restaurant's hotel location, and the responsibilities that go with it, "room service and a whole host of high-volume party events, there’s a vague assembly-line feel to the proceedings that is compounded by the prices."  Price is the recurring theme and while "the main courses at NoMad are accomplished, none of them are cheap."  At $39, Platt pins the cracked lobster dish as "extravagantly priced."  "If you don't mind paying $20 for those carrots (and some at my table did mind), I recommend you order them with the duck ($32)."

Daniel Humm and Will Guardia have set the bar pretty high with Eleven Madison Park.  According to Platt, the efforts that have gone into EMP have resulted in "the finest restaurant in the city."  Its success is somewhat of a double edged sword as he seemed challenged to be blown away at The NoMad.  While he refers to other entrees as "pricey barnyard creations," he finds none to be "as satisfying as the chicken for two ($78)," but that hasn't left the dish out of public crosshairs.

The Copenzepi Takeover

New York Mag's Adam Platt awarded Atera four stars (out of five) last week.  That puts the restaurant at Exceptional, just one star away from the pinnacle, Ethereal category.

Atera chef Matt Lightner is an alum of Noma, Copenhagen's/The World's most fascinating restaurant since the closing of Spain's El Bulli.  Rene Redzepi is Noma's chef and he is a founding father of what is being referred to as New Nordic Cuisine.  Platt's review of Atera is another wave in the tsunami of attention being thrown in the general direction of Scandinavia.

Acme was awarded two stars by Pete Wells a few weeks ago.  The chef?  Noma vet Mads Reflund.  Frej is a pop-up at Kinfolk Studios in Williamsburg, serving a $45, five-course, Nordic influenced tasting menu three nights a week to anyone lucky enough to land a reservation.  The guys at Lucky Peach hung out with Rene in Issue #2, and in Issue #3, David Chang himself mentions the significance a stage at Noma means to an aspiring chef, and that commitment and discipline in the kitchen are just as relevant to technique and ingredients when it comes to Noma's success.

An article in The Wall Street Journal talks about "Life Beyond Noma," and discusses the culinary trend that has resulted as more and more chefs are passing through Noma's kitchen.