Saturday, June 14, 2008

Scarpetta's


Located in the Gin House space on West 14th. Street, a diamond in the meatpacking district has emerged. Scarpetta's is a an upscale Italian with super service and delicious food that is on the pricey side. The space has been transformed into a brown, beige and black ultra modern room with brown banguettes and cool open skylights. There are mirrors on the walls with beige belt like pieces hung vertically in a strange design decision. There is a large wine room in the rear of the restaurant and an extensive selection. The bread arrives with four different kinds of house made breads including a lovely focaccia, pancetta bread, baguette and a roll. To enjoy with the bread are eggplant caponata, marscapone butter and citrus infused olive oil- all delish. To start we shared a scallop carpacio which was citrusy and light. Also to start was a mozzarella in carozza. The carozza was prepared in a Japanese panko which was good, though there was a tad too much oregano in the accompanying red sauce for my taste. The main courses were a raviolini with squash blossoms and a calamerata pasta with mixed seafood. The raviolini had pieces of baby zucchini as well as the squash blossoms and was flawless. The calamerata has a seafoody taste and was very interesting to taste. There was also an order of frito misto with fried seafood with lemon, again perfect. This is a place for a special dinner with exceptional service and a pricetag to match.
Must Go!