La Devozione in Chelsea Market is an Italian pasta grocery, tasting counter and trattoria.
Describing La Devozione as an institution the place the little issues matter is each very true however not almost reward sufficient for the way each element—from the décor to the packaging, from the standard of the pasta and the icy coldness of the cocktails—has been rigorously sorted, calibrated, examined and made half of a complete idea that begins up entrance with an Italian market and strikes to a counter area for tasting meals and the nook-like A Tavola trattoria, as casually comfy as it’s fortunately colourful.
Giuseppe di Martino is proprietor of the household’s pasta empire.
Positioned within the warren of Chelsea Market, La Devozione was opened final fall by Giuseppe Di Martino, third-generation Neapolitan proprietor of Pastificio Di Martino (based in 1912), whose devotion to pasta looks like a non secular campaign, marshaling greater than 120 pasta shapes to be bought, taken dwelling as a dish or loved on the tables. The area, designed by Marcello Panza of Studio Minimo, teems with vivid colours on pasta packages, lunchbox-like meals tins designed by Dolce & Gabbana, Moka espresso pots, aprons and ceramics from Solimene Ceramica, south of Naples. Lighting from the ceiling permits a superb view of the room, your companions, the menu and the fantastic thing about the meals.
A “Lollipop di Macaroni” is A Tavola’s model of mac-and-cheese (yellow and white cheddar) ennobled … [+]
My associates and I had been cordially acquired at A Tavola by supervisor Phil Davoric, who’s pleased to elucidate what makes La Devozione’s strategy to pasta completely different, except for utilizing the corporate’s pastas (constituted of Italian durum wheat and lower with bronze dies). Apart from some glorious antipasti I’ll get to in a second, all else is pasta, however even amongst these dishes that may be discovered elsewhere on the town, there are some delicate and not-so-subtle distinctions right here.
For one factor, they aren’t kidding after they say on the menu, “al dente, the genuine Italian means of cooking pasta, agency to the chunk, to reinforce the flavour of your dish, digest it higher and cut back glycemic index.” Even those that like their pasta cooked “to the tooth” could discover A Tavola’s significantly firmer, much more than is common in Italy. However timing is vital to every completely different form and sauce. Subsequent, there are a number of “seasonal” pastas utilizing vegetable and different elements sourced from the Union Sq. Greenmarket. (Curiously, now in August, the printed menu nonetheless says “Spring.”) Third, there are six “Untouchables,” referring to Neapolitan classics which might be by no means off the menu maintained by Govt Chef Alessio Rossetti.
A Tavola’s easy spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil is nonpareil.
Let’s start, nevertheless, with the antipasti: A frittatina of pasta ($16) is available in a wealthy besciamella cream with peas, ham and Parmigiano that you’ll mop up with slices of Italian bread. A “Lollipop di Macaroni” is A Tavola’s model of mac-and-cheese (yellow and white cheddar) ennobled by a truffled hazelnut sauce ($15), whereas trottole alla caprese is a salad of buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil ($18). Orzo tiepido ($15) is a bowl of tepid little pasta nubs blended with candy summer season greens. Any of those must be shared on the desk.
Pastas are all cooked very al dente and shapes are matched to sauces.
And so, the pastas: Naples, and its area of Campania, is rightly credited with making a number of the most interesting tomato-based sauces on the earth—that is the place the well-known San Marzano tomatoes are grown—and I by no means thought I might discover a higher rendering of easy spaghetti with tomato and basil than I had at lunch at a vineyard named Cantina del Vesuvio—an ideal amalgam of sweetness, texture, aroma and the flavors of very ripe tomatoes, glorious olive oil and sunny basil. Now, if I can not declare that A Tavola’s is best than that nonpareil, it’s simply its equal, and no marvel the menu calls the dish “La Devozione” ($28). It’s a right away template for all different recipes all over the place else. (The key is that the spaghetti is cooked until nonetheless fairly agency, then cooked 4 minutes extra within the contemporary tomato sauce to soak up its flavors.)
Ziti taglialati lisci alla Norma ($28) is the normal, very hearty mélange of tomato, scamorza cheese, ricotta salata and eggplant, whereas equally hefty is the candele (formed like candle tubes) with a basic Neapolitan meat ragù ($27) constituted of lengthy simmered spareribs and generously included with Parmigiano. The spiciest of the pastas is the penne all’arrabbiata ($23), lashed with scorching chilies.
A ricotta cheese torta is from a grandma’s recipe.
Probably the most heralded pasta on the menu is the twin-noodle known as gemelli in a pesto evoking the modernist creations of Modena’s star chef Massimo Bottura, right here carried out with mint, basil, garlic, breadcrumbs and Parmigiano ($28), which I discovered the least profitable of the pastas. Eradicating the pignoli nuts important to a Ligurian pesto’s particular taste and texture is defined as “remade for sustainability,” although I had no thought pignoli had been at risk of extinction. The dish lacked the brilliant inexperienced of a well-made pesto, showing barely gummy and olive inexperienced. Pecorino, not Parmigiano, provides a greater steadiness to the dish, too. In any case, a share of proceeds of every dish will assist Chef Bottura Meals for Soul and the New York-based venture Refettorio Harlem.
These pasta dishes are all greater than ample for a principal course, and our desk of 4 introduced some dwelling. There are not any meat or fish programs afterwards anyway. However there are some pleasant desserts, together with a grandma’s ricotta torta ($12), completely flakey sfogiatelle with citrus ricotta and vanilla gelato ($12), and a baba soaked with rum ($14).
Bartender Christhiane Rodriguez is as severe about his cocktails as A Tavola is its pastas.
Regardless of the idea of A Tavola as a easy trattoria, the wine listing by Max Tierno could be exemplary anyplace on the town. Largely Italian however with different international locations’ wines, it has shocking breadth and depth, and although I can’t think about too many individuals ordering the $2,250 bottle of 1990 Pergola Torte, there are some superb bargains, just like the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano at $50.
So, too, bartender Cristhian Rodriguez is that very uncommon breed who actually cares in regards to the composition, steadiness and temperature of a well-made cocktail.
By the best way, on the oval counter La Devozione incorporates a four-course pasta lunch at $95 and 7 programs at diner for $165, which sounds extreme, and the night time I visited, nobody had taken that possibility.
Like many outlets and eateries in Chelsea Market, La Devozione is tucked away and properly value looking for out, for though the menu could resemble any variety of different trattorias in Manhattan, few come near the genuine flavors achieved right here in such a deceptively easy means.
LA DEVOZIONE A TAVOLA
428 West sixteenth Road
Chelsea Market
646-720-0215
Open for Lunch day by day; dinner Wed.-Solar.
