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“Sfoglia”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Upper East Side	Moderate	Great

My Dinner at Sfoglia
After dining at Sfoglia, I realized that it is possible to be picked up while eating dinner at a restaurant. I had no idea this sort of thing happened—get picked up at a bar, sure, but at your table? Rare, right? But yes, it happened the other night while I was having dinner at Sfoglia. It was a lot of fun actually. But let me back up a bit.

I had dinner at Sfoglia last week with two incredibly interesting women in the meat business, interviewing them for a story I hope to write. They suggested we have dinner at Sfoglia, a place they have come to love. I had never heard of it, but hearing them rave—despite the 92nd and Lex location—I decided to give it a whirl. I cannot make this point clearly enough: Sfoglia is a gem of a restaurant, with honest food and that warm, genuine neighborhood hospitality that turns customers into family. I would consider a move Uptown for this restaurant.

The vibe at Sfoglia is soft and sexy—tres trattoria chic. The modest room is wrapped in earthen clay walls and filled with long weathered farmhouse tables topped with oversized bowls of fat red onions, colanders of oversized spuds, and cast-iron pans of juicy lemons. The restaurant’s floor to ceiling windows are hung with willowy gauzy curtains, and the banquettes are tossed with gem-toned throw pillows. The room is low lit with antique rose crystal chandeliers. The place feels like a farmhouse in some dusty sunburned hillside village in Umbria.

Sfoglia is owned by Ron and Colleen Suhanosky, a husband (chef) and wife (pastry chef) team who also own a restaurant in Nantucket of the same name. Their hallmark is simple food—Italian in style, substance, and sensibility. Their sous chef is Molly Smith, a young woman who worked with Katy Sparks at Quilty’s and Matt Weingarten at Porcupine. She was in charge of the kitchen the night I was there. She’s got the goods.

The menu changes every few days according to what’s best at the markets. The night I was there we began with a great riff on the classic Caesar salad ($9)—this one made not of ribs of romaine, but of ribs of celery, julienned into thin crunchy strips, dressed lightly but assertively—lemon up front, anchovy on the bass.

House-cured sardines, while way to salty, reminded me of a (most divine) peasant’s lunch. They are topped with hard-boiled eggs, fat fingerling potatoes, ... [more, click below]

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Posted: May 21, 2006

Other restaurants in Upper East Side :
+ Sfoglia   + Zoe Townhouse   + Accademia di Vino   + T-Bar Steak and Lounge   + Parlor Steakhouse   + Le Caprice   

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