First Taste: L’Artusi

12.08.08
L'Artusi

Just a couple of weeks ago, if you wanted to taste Gabe Thompson’s gutsy seasonal Italian comfort food, you had to put up with the insane din of tiny Dell’Anima. No longer. Thompson and partner Joe Campanale have taken over the former Maremma space on 10th Street in the West Village and transformed it into L’Artusi, with a fully open kitchen and three separate bars, theoretically one each for drinking, cheeses, and crudos. While it’s not exactly sedate—on the night I visited it was rocking, with plenty of loud music and thunderous conversation from the mostly young crowd—it is possible to hear yourself as well as your tablemates speak without actually screaming. And the food is definitely on, with all the dishes you would expect (fluke crudo, delicata squash with sage butter, a particularly tasty version of orecchiette with sausage and radicchio) and some that are more surprising (a super-rich Wagyu tongue with cabbage mostarda, lovely braised calf’s belly with polenta), all deftly executed and just what you want on a cold winter’s evening.

L’Artusi 228 W. 10th St., New York City (212-255-5757)

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