Below 14th Street
What's with the Italian restaurants leaning into seafood ...?
The day before my birthday last week, Jimmy Bradley, former chef-owner of the great Red Cat in Chelsea, invited Ann and me to dinner at his home in Charlestown, RI.
We arrived at The Bradley Arms to find Harold Dieterle skinning and slicing several filets of dry-aged Kona Kampachi, a sushi-grade, “designer yellowtail,” eco-friendly and bred off Hawaii.
Ann knew who Harold was because she’s a devotee of Top Chef and Harold won the first season. He told us he’d recently opened a restaurant in our neighborhood, Il Totano (“the squid”)—an Italian seafood restaurant. We’d noted when Angela Rito and Scott Tacinelli opened San Sabino, also an Italian restaurant leaning into seafood on the same block as their outstanding Don Angie. Every chef and writer friend we know seems to have gone to and raved about Penny in the East Village, and others: Theodora, Eel Bar, Strange Delight. Marine life on NYC tables is hot right now.
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