ailing straight from Florence, chef and owner, Pietro Vardeu, is a whirlwind of ambition that cultivated him to shoot straight up to the top job after observing and working in some bustling kitchens in Italy and New York.

Without a standard professional culinary background, Vardeu rose to the helm after a fallout with a former chef. He turned his neighborhood New York boite, Pappardella, into a hotspot and never looked back. He is doing the same with Sardinia and I’m sure this Italian resto/lounge will do justice to the pasta-loving patrons.

While the menu isn’t your standard fare, it's a good chance to explore the regional cuisine of Sardinia. For starters, try bowl of hearty minestrone ($7.00), which has attitude coming out of every spoonful. If you’re in love with potent seafood, try the Smeralda ($12.00), a fresh seafood salad with borlotti beans.

For mains, Sardinia have extremely regional dishes, so be brave and order with gusto. A special dinner feature is Malloreddos- Sardinian teardrop pasta with ragu of baby braised lamb ($14.00). The Coniglio is braised rabbit with leeks, and Vardeu's is served admirably, scented with a piquant mixture of herbs.

So it is with rabbit as well. They have a new supplier, which they celebrated by offering rabbit three ways—three different preparations on one plate. Previous offerings included rabbit hind quarters braised in olive oil with stewed artichokes and black truffles ($25), and the same meat braised in pork stock with leeks and cream, bacon and thyme ($20). I enjoyed a somewhat simpler preparation of braised rabbit over soft polenta ($19),