Nicoletta Attacks Gotham City Friday

Ed Levine and Adam Kuban are the culinary version of Batman and Robin.  The difference is, crime doesn't motivate them, pizza does.  Ed Levine wrote a book called Pizza: A Slice of Heaven.  His pal Adam Kuban writes a colum for Seriouseats called Slice, a NYC based weblog that's dedicated to pizza.  Their extensive knowledge of all things pizza is why they're able to bring us this detailed, first-look at Nicoletta, Michael White's new pizzeria opening in the East Village this Friday, June 15th.

Nicoletta is a break from Michael White's refined, attention-to-detail driven Italian cooking made famous at Marea, Osteria Morini and Ai Fiori.  The East Village haunt is inspired by a place called Domenico's in White's hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin.  It will serve 12 and 16-inch pizzas, a traditional lasagna, and one flavor of gelato to guests dining indoors or out, in any of the 38 sidewalk seats.

A whole milk mozzarella from Wisconsin will top certain pizzas and beers from the same state are available to wash them down.  According to a Times article, "every table is fitted with metal sockets in which the stems of cantilevered pizza stands are placed."  This is done to free up table space.  Eater has some awesome pictures of an empty dining room, probably your last chance to see it that way.

Park Slope's Week Old Woodland Succeeds East Village's Vandaag

Brendan Spiro told Eater yesterday that Vandaag, his Dutch-inspired restaurant in the East Village that was open for less than two years, is officially closed.  Vandaag had changed chef's more than once, and earlier this month the restaurant installed a take out window to sell sausages to passersby.  The efforts prove too little as Spiro and co. decide to call it quits and put all their riesling braised rabbits into one basket.

"It is with much regret that we wish to inform all of our loyal patrons about a recent decision to close Vandaag."

Woodland is the new project from Spiro that opened last week on the corner of Flatbush and 6th Ave and employs much of the same team that worked at Vandaag.  The restaurant is equipped with a garden, music stage, private dining room, DJ venue and grilled cheese sandwiches for all the stroller riding toddlers that make their way in at the hands of Park Slope parents.

Double Duty for Pete Wells This Week

Pete Wells files a double review this week on Peter Hoffman's Back Forty and Back Forty West.

Back Forty West comes to us as the replacement to Peter Hoffman's Greenmarket visionary Savoy, which operated in the same building, on the corner of Crosby and Prince, for over twenty years before closing last June.

The menus at the BF and BFW share "an overall philosophy," but are no means identical.  "Back Forty West isn’t a total clone. It’s more like a fraternal twin, sharing the logo and the look of the first place, along with a few menu items and an overall philosophy."

"Over the last month or so, I’ve had a string of extremely pleasant meals at second-generation Back Forty West, and a succession of sloppy, careless ones at the place it was modeled after. It’s as if Back Forty has gone into a long, jealous sulk, like a family cat that responds to the arrival of a new baby by hiding under the couch and scratching at anybody who gets too close."

His experiences at the restaurants leave Wells awarding zero stars to Back Forty, who gets pegged 'Fair', while Back Forty West receives a solid two stars.

Have a Long Night with Hearth and Some German Wine

Paul Grieco is responsible for the wine program at Hearth and Terroir and he just won the James Beard Award Monday for Outstanding Wine Professional.  You can drink with him and other wine enthusiasts tomorrow night at Hearth starting at 11pm as Hearth presents Lange Nacht des deustschen Weins, aka A Long Night of German Wines.  Chef Marco Canora is roasting two sucking pigs for the ocassion and the wine is coming courtesy of Stuart Pigott.  Stuart is a longtime Hearth buddy and wine expert and he is having 10 cases of wine sent over from his and his friend Roy Metzdorf's cellars.

There is a $50 admission fee with every penny of that going to the Hope Charity in South Africa, which raises money to prevent HIV and AIDS.

Hearth is at 403 East 12th Street (1st Ave), get your ticket here.

Two Stars for Empellon Cocina

Pete Wells makes it over to Alex Stupak's Empellon Cocina and awards it two solid stars.  There were a few "stammers" in a salad with avacado and toasted grains, and a "kind of queso fundido made with lobster and tetilla cheese was buttery and rich, but also so watery that eating it became a three-napkin job."

Wells stresses that tapas may not be the proper format to present the food, but decides "Mr. Stupak’s cooking at Empellón Cocina resembles the food of Mexico the way a dream resembles life."

3 Stars for Kyo Ya

In his gratuitous 3-star-review of Kyo Ya, Pete Wells boasts of the restaurant's exclusion from technology.  You won't find Kyo Ya on OpenTable, the restaurant doesn't have a website, and if "Kyo Ya has opinions about bankers or fracking, they remain untweeted."  In other words, until the Times mentioned Kyo Ya, it wasn't exactly 'Ko difficult' to experience the kaiseki menu that's only offered to 10 people a night.

The title of the review is "Seasonality's Master Practioner," referring to chef Chikara Sono's seasonal sensibilities and the respect for the seasons that Japanese cuisine is centered upon.  "It is easy in New York now to believe that eating ramps in April makes you an expert in seasonal cooking. As a meal at Kyo Ya will show, this is a little like believing that eating a tuna salad sandwich makes you a marine biologist."

Fonda East Village Now Open

Roberto Santibanez, the man behind Park Slope's Fonda, opened a Fonda outpost in the East Village and hopes to get the same neighborhood vibe as the Brooklyn locale.

Originally slated for a February 21st open date, Fonda opened for dinner yesterday.  Brunch plans are in the near future.

40 Avenue B (btwn 3rd and 4th)

Cabbie Didn't Realize Hearth Doesn't Have a Drive-Thru Window

These photo's come to us via chef Marco Canora over at Hearth.  Apparently a cab decided to crash into the restaurant last Friday around 11pm.  A tweet from the chef tells us, "Thankfully, no one was hurt."