The best food and restaurants for today. Atwater, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Thai Town, Hollywood, New York and wherever my travels take me.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Osteria al Doge



Short of a trip to Venice, Osteria al Doge offers a pretty good introduction to Venetian cuisine. As you might expect from a city that built its riches as the center of a seafaring empire, dishes such as grilled branzino (seabass), cozze al vino bianco (mussles in white wine) and carpaccio di tonno (thinly sliced yellowfin) have a prominent place here. So too do classic dishes like fegato alla Veneziana, stir-fried calves liver with browned onions and red wine vinegar, that provide a hint of the tastes that might have been inspired by a Venetian mariner's contact with the salty/sweet/sour dishes of the Far East. Start off with simple Venetian fare such as a soup of pasta e fagioli or fill your plate from a selection of grilled vegetable antipasti that are on display next to the bar. Polipo al carbone, grilled imported octopus with oven-roasted tomatoes and black olives, is a standout as an antipasta, and tagliolini alla chitarra, homemade pasta with veal and wild mushroom ragu, is rich and satisfying enough to sustain me on a 7-hour plane ride back to Los Angeles. (Damn you and your delays, John F. Kennedy airport!)

Osteria al Doge
142 W 44th St (bet B'way and 6th Ave)
New York
(212) 944-DOGE (3643)

Osteria Al Doge in New York

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