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.