L'Apicio Gets a Star

Pete Wells awards one star to L'Apicio, Joe Campanale and Epicurean Management's fourth venture. With dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora each intimately sized and all in the West Village, L'Apicio breaks the mold in size and location. The 180-seat space opened on the ground level of a new condominium building on East 1st Street in the East Village, but that hasn't stopped the clientele from filing in in droves since the restaurant opened in October.

In his review, Wells finds the polenta alla spianatora "good enough to anchor a meal at L'Apicio." "The polenta dishes," he continues, "along with most of the pastas and appetizers, are handled so expertly that it almost doesn’t matter that L’Apicio’s grasp of the main courses is much less steady." A few marks were missed along the way, but the solid one-star review left Wells writing, "Many restaurateurs would like the secret to making people take up an imperfect restaurant the way New Yorkers have already taken up L’Apicio."

First Bite: L'Apicio

Welcome to First Bite, wherein we bring you a look at some of the city's newest restaurants shortly after they open. We'll go, eat some food, take some pictures, and report back to you. This go round it's L'Apicio, the newest project from Joe Campanale and chef Gabe Thompson on East First Street that opened October 18th. We didn't have a chance to go before we left for Asia, but it was our first dinner when we got back to town.

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L'Apicio is Open

[photo: krieger] dining room at l'apicioJoe Campanale and Epicurean Management have officially opened L'Apicio.  Dinner kicked off last week at 13 East 1st Street on Thursday night.  The 170 seat restaurant is the team's fourth project and the second to open from our Taste of Tastes to Come list.

Gabe Thompson's Italian-inspired menu showcases his knowledge of the country's cuisine.  L'Apicio offers a variety of salads, meat, fish, pastas, and a handful of "Polenta all Spianatora," where a stew or ragu is served directly on top of polenta.  Pastas range from $14 (Spaghetti - spicy tomato sauce and basil) to $22 (Tajarin - porcini mushrooms, garlic, and thyme), and sweetbreads show up for $17 with agnolotti and mascarpone.

Joe Campanale has taken care of the beverage options at L'Apicio.  Beer is broken down into "Draft," "High Octane (high alcohol %)," "Sessionable," "Quirky," and "Hoppy."  House cocktails come in at $13.  A few Champagne options take the list to France, but otherwise Campanale has stayed in Italy and the states to curate the wine list.  Sparkling, white, orange, rose, and red wines are all offered by the glass.  The bottle list breaks down selections into two categories: "New World" and "Old Country."  New World refers to those wines being made domestically, where wine makers tend to take a modern approach to wine making, i.e.  temperature controlled fermentation and the use of small barrels.  Old Country wines refer to those coming from Italy, where tradition, more often than not, dictates wine production methods. 

Sunday-Wednesday, 5:30pm – 11:00pm, Thursday-Saturday, 5:30pm-12:00am

L'Apicio | 212.533.7400 | 13 E 1st St | www