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Gemma, NYC |
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Review by Frank Longo |
Still, D'Amico's cooking is quiet and engaging. He takes the tavern repertory and adds his own hip tweaks to the dishes in unexpected directions but does not overwhelm them. In keeping with the hipster Italian trattoria theme, D'Amico does great work with antipasti and cheese plates.
A light and elegant Burrata Caprese salad ($10.00), with grape tomatoes, basil and olio novella di Sicilia, and a plate of crispy zucchini flowers filled with ricotta, are elegantly plated. But a hastily put-together crispy shrimp and calamari ($10.00) was the only disappointing starter. Other starters include a beef carpaccio with white truffle puree, a dry cured pork salame with black peppercorns ($7.00) and a seared yellow fin tuna with rosemary and shallot butter beans.
Mains are for the most part winners, and modestly priced, too. It's hard to imagine a better roasted organic chicken ($19.00) than D'Amico's – crispy, juicy and served with a tangy sauteed spinach. And I can't remember enjoying a piece of steak ($36.00) as much either. This grilled 20 ounce porterhouse steak, normally tender but dull, was full of flavor served with a simple heap of roasted potatoes. The grilled veal chop ($36.00) is good: just a decent cut of meat, seared hard till it gets a nice crust, paired with fagiolini.
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2 Reader Reviews
Traffic, traffic - traffic everywhere. Now I remember what I hated about living in the East Village. Nonetheless, Gemma is still a good choice; they somehow manage to deliver sophisticated haute cuisine without the off-putting haughty service.
Randy Cohen's Rating: 3 Stars |
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It's a small place and heading over here on a Friday night (which was also First Friday) left us with little room to enjoy... too many people in too cramped a space. It seems like it would be a pretty sweet hangout if not too crowded, otherwise the sardine-can chic really describes the atmosphere. The area seems to be gentrifying and with the light rail on the way more places like this will start popping up in the area. Good thing for those who couldn't make it into the Waverly
Randy L's Rating: 3 Stars |
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Gemma |
335 Bowery, New York, NY
212-505-9100
East Village
Italian
Restaurant
$$$ (Within Reach)
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