Well, East Villagers who were hoping that nobody would notice that Bond Street Italian standby Il Buco had opened an off-shoot, Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria, a block north...we have bad news. The Times's new restaurant critic Pete Wells went and blew up your spot today with a three-star rave that has already booked the joint up till nearly the end of February.
So what's the charm of this rustic shop/restaurant? It tastes like Italy. Per Wells:
That myth is an old one. You go to a small town in Umbria and find your way to some modest trattoria, or maybe a market with a few tables. Then lunch arrives, and the top of your head comes off. Meanwhile everybody around you has their elbows on the table and is acting like food this good is no big thing. And you say, why not? Why couldn’t we have a place just like this back home?
...
Very few believers have tried to live out the myth by recreating the entire Italian village. But in a sense this is what Donna Lennard and her partners have done at Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria, and that is what makes it such an inviting place to have a pastry in the morning, a sandwich and a bowl of soup at noon, and a small feast at night.
Wells loves all of it. He loves the store up front (though it "might be too precious for everyday cooks"). He loves the bread (he goes on about it for paragraphs). He loves the meat (it "is the kind of exceptional reward Manhattan bestows on people who are stubborn, tireless and have the right timing."). The only thing he really seems to have issue with is that sometimes his pasta was slightly overcooked ("sometimes the pasta station here seems to lose track of time, and a bowl of noodles that should be tensely coiled is allowed to unwind just a bit.").
So. If you want a taste of what Wells is talking about and don't want to try and cook it yourself from the store's products, you better line up quick (or try going before dinner! It is open from noon—3:30 p.m. for lunch).
53 Great Jones // 212-837-2622
