NYC's Torrisi Cooks Local|Rick Torrisi|Carla Capalbo

NYC's Torrisi Cooks Local

Torrisi, a restaurant in New York City's Little Italy, takes a fresh look at Italian food.

By Carla Capalbo | Wednesday, 13 April 2011 | 01:15

Rick Torrisi and Mario Carbone outside their restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York's Little Italy

Torrisi Italian Specialties is the kind of mom-and-pop eatery that's been on Mulberry Street for generations. Down here, in the heart of New York City's Little Italy, old-fashioned lace curtains and colorful cans of plum tomatoes are just the sort of window dressing you expect from a family restaurant. Like the stand-up espresso machine and white tiled wall behind the countertop, they're icons of this lower Manhattan neighborhood.

The lunch menu reflects a similarly comforting time warp. At Torrisi, meatballs are homemade and come with red sauce, eggplant "parm" is stacked high as a cake, and the hero is heroic. Rabe greens are wilted and served speckled with spice. Like their colorful counterpoints, stewed red peppers, the greens are sold by the quarter pound. Get them to go or to eat at the simple wooden tables, followed by coffee and cake or cookies.

This may sound like the kind of place you went to as a kid with your Italian grandmother (as I did), but there's a twist: Torrisi opened in late 2009. The retro food and decor may be remembrances of times past, but the concept is refreshingly modern.

"Most Italian restaurants in the city aim to replicate Italian food as it's prepared in Italy, importing as many original ingredients from there as possible," says Rich Torrisi who, with his partner and co-chef, Mario Carbone, owns Torrisi Italian Specialties. The chefs met at culinary school 13 years ago and spent years dreaming of this restaurant. "Our idea is different: We're celebrating what's great about American-Italian food by re-creating the flavors of our New York childhoods."

1 of 9

Tomato cans in the Torrisi restaurant window

If lunchtime is dedicated to memory lane makeovers, dinner at Torrisi takes on a different guise. The evening meal consists of a single, $50 prix-fixe menu of four courses with no options (the only choice available is between two main courses). "Everyone eats the same menu, so we cut down on costs and wastage," explains Carbone. "We don't take reservations either; people line up at 6 p.m. for the first sitting as there are only 25 seats."

"We were inspired by what is going on in Paris, in bistros like Iñaki Aizpitarte's Le Chateaubriand where the concept of the single menu has really taken hold," says Torrisi. "Those guys have revolutionized the concept of eating out. They use the ingredients they find around them to cook the meals they want, from tiny kitchens in restaurants with character but no frills." The diner is treated to a one-off, creative experience. Take it or leave it.

"We explore the whole Italo-American experience and what this multicultural neighborhood has to offer," says Carbone as he chalks the evening's menu onto a blackboard wall in the dining room. "Little Italy is located at the crossroads of Chinatown with Jewish, Polish and other communities. Mulberry Street itself has an eclectic mix of residents. We grew up enjoying this fusion of ideas, ingredients and flavors, and we wanted our restaurant to reflect that."

Their dishes include a reinterpretation of classic marinara sauce, as well as a new version of the "chicken fra diavolo" that was once found on every Italian menu in the city. "Our take on that classic chicken dish goes beyond the confines of traditional Italian cuisine," says Torrisi. "We cook the chicken sous vide, and serve it with a vinaigrette of smoky Mexican chilies, local yogurt and lemon juice, over bitter salad greens."

The chefs feature primarily American-grown produce. "We can't do local the way people cooking in the countryside can," says Carbone. "We use fresh ingredients from the Chinese market a few streets away, as well as goat cheeses made in Queens. It's all part of the New York mix." A recent dinner included mozzarella made with organic cream produced at Milk Thistle dairy farm in upstate New York, Raffetto pasta from Houston Street and sesame breadsticks from the Parisi Bakery in Little Italy.

Lamb sweetbreads were prepared in the style of "Nha Trang," one of the chefs' favorite downtown Vietnamese restaurants. The "pomme and pomme" antipasto owed more to Jewish potato and apple latkes than to anything the men's nonnas would have concocted. Grilled octopus came with a spicy pepperoni vinaigrette, and gnocchi made with Coach Farm's goat-milk ricotta were tossed with tiny cauliflower florets and resinous, smoked pine nuts. The meal concluded with a selection of freshly baked cookies from a nearby pastry shop.

Torrisi and Carbone's modern urban theme allows for endless play and permutations, and their imaginative food is presented in a casual, diner-friendly way. "We make the plate look like we've taken the technique out," says Torrisi. "And to think that this kind of Italian food never got any respect before," Carbone concludes, shaking his head. "It's crazy."

Carla Capalbo is an award-winning food, wine and travel writer based in Italy for more than 20 years. Her book, "Collio: Fine Wines and Foods from Italy's Northeast" recently won the André Simon prize for best wine book.

Top photo: Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone outside their restaurant, Torrisi.