Eataly's Rossopomodoro Brings Perfectly Puffed Pizza To The West Village
Dec. 3, 2014, 12:33 p.m.
Their fresh pastas are also not to be missed.
Eataly has expanded its reach downtown with the opening of Rossopomodoro, an extension of their in-house pizza counter. The Greenwich Avenue restaurant officially opens on Thursday, with a menu of homemade pastas, pizzas and other Italian specialties, plus a small retail section echoing the mothership on 23rd Street. The space is certainly less frenetic than the Eataly version—though navigating the flow of people through the narrow entryway at a friends and family dinner last night was a complicated dance nobody quite knew the steps to.
There are four dining areas, including a separate bar room and a smaller area with seats peeking into the pizza prep area and the glittering gold pizza oven. That's where the staff expertly prepares their delicious pies, topped simply with Mozzarella di Bufala and tomato sauce or decked out with Brussels sprouts, guanciale and creme fraiche. The pillowy dough comes kissed by the wood-burning oven, the outer rim puffed up and ever-so-slightly blistered. They're some of the best pizzas we've tried in recent memory in this ever growing scene.
Their fresh pastas are not to be ignored either, especially the incredible Spaghetto alla Chitarra ($17), a flavorful mix of spaghetti rigati, romanesco—think funky broccoli-cauliflower—anchovies and Auricchio Scorza Nera cheese. When you've slurped the last of the noodles, use a stray bit of pizza crust to clean the delicious sauce from the bottom of the bowl. The restaurant also offers freshly-made gnocchi ($18) and agnolotti in a sage sauce ($18) plus dried pastas served al dente like Rigatoni Genovese ($18) in a short rib ragu and Linguine al Riccio ($21) with sea urchin.
Snag a seat in the bar area for a glass of Montepulciano, Dogfish Head beer or Italian cocktails like Sprtiz, Negroni or the Eyebrows Like Sophia Loren ($14) with vodka, cherry and lime. The bar's also a great place to snack on appetizers like large Arancini ($9) filled with cheese, Verdure al Forno ($10, roasted vegetables) or maybe your own Zucchetta ($17) white pizza, topped with gorgonzola, winter squash and mozzarella.
118 Greenwich Avenue, (212) 242-2310; website
