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“A Voce”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Murray Hill	Moderate	Great

One sentence was uttered frequently at my table last week while dining at A Voce, chef Andrew Carmellini’s flawless post-Café Boulud debut: “I want to eat here every day.” It was a sentence that first greeted our conversation after we demolished a shallow oblong platter of duck meatballs ($13)—the most miraculous expressions of ball-shaped meat ever created. Served with a dried cherry mustarda fashioned from soaked cherries, red wine vinegar, and mustard seed, they are smoky, sweet, and soft (pork and foie gras gives them that rich creaminess). They just melt in your mouth, while your heart slows and your eyes to roll back in your head. I have never had such a reaction to a meatball. Julie uttered the sentence next, after we shared two pastas: a bowl of spaghetti with first ramps and slivers of American speck ($14/$25) and a plate of cloud-like potato gnocchi ($22)—whispers of potato rather than strong statements—with firm sweet spring peas and prosciutto in puddle a verdant pea sauce. Kathy said it after slicing into a fried egg perched on top of a collection of fat grilled asparagus, topped with shaved Parmesan and duck bresaola ($15). She let the yolk run down over the spears and mix with the frisee and the slightly salty cured meat, and exclaimed: “We have to eat here every day.” Diana said it when she started in on her bowl of homemade pappardelle—wide ruffled ribbons of pasta in a rich lamb Bolognese spiced up with mint and given a jolt of cool creaminess from a generous dollop of fresh ricotta ($24). (I finished every last bit of Bolognese in that bowl. I was possessed.)

When we moved onto the entrees, the conversation didn’t get much more exciting. It pretty much went like this: “This is so good. Wow. Wait, did you try this? Oh, this is unbelievable.” Calls out to the divine were not infrequent. Grilled octopus ($17) is rubbed with radish, a trick that tenderizes the gnarly beast, then marinated overnight and grilled to order so it has a nice charred crust. It is plated up with pepperonata, lemon and chorizo. It’s pretty spectacular. We also loved the thick-cut grilled pork chop—juicy and ratcheted up with flavor—that had fancy French bones (think rack of lamb) and was set in an earthy sauce buoyed with br ... [more, click below]

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Posted: April 16, 2006

Other restaurants in Murray Hill :
+ Breakfast at The Cafe at Country   + A Voce   + Country (Upstairs)   + Darna   + Penelope   

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