“The Little Owl”
Occasion: |
Cuisine: |
Area: |
Cost: |
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Night Out |
New American |
West Village |
Moderate |
Great |
roth stocked with smoky hunks of bacon and rounded out with fat and fabulous fava beans. This may be the best eleven bucks you can spend on a bowl of pasta in New York City. The crispy chicken ($17) was somewhere between Southern fried and cooked under a brick—the skin was lightly fried, crunchy and spiced up with just right flash of salt pepper and heat, and the meat, well, it was to your average chicken what an iPod is to an eight track. The chicken is paired up with a side called asparagus home fries—home fries tossed with celery salt, cayenne, pepper, and lean lengths of asparagus. Delicious.
The broiled Chatham cod ($18)—super glossy alabaster flesh—was topped with pesto vinaigrette and paired with a rustic corn salad made from rows of corn shaved fresh from the cob, and firm sweet green peas. It was simple and spectacular. Same goes for the halibut ($23), which was roasted and served rather modestly on a mound of chive-stocked mashed potatoes in a thunderbolt of a sauce made from lemon, veal stock and crème fraiche. Bring on the aria.
I know this is sort of a dull review to read because I do not have a bad word to say about the menu or the service or the entity that is The Little Owl other than it is too small. But its size does add to its charm. So yes, The Little Owl is a new favorite restaurant. It appeals to me first and foremost because Joey’s food rocks. Then it gets me ‘cause of the energy—for its soul—the heartfelt welcome you get from Gabriel when you dine there. But then, I also like it because it is a dream come true for these two young men. And while my job here is review a restaurant’s food, I think it’s appropriate, once in a while, to take a moment to appreciate more than the food, and to acknowledge the effort and the dreams and the hard work of someone’s accomplishments. The Little Owl is a little pocket-sized miracle for Joey and Gabriel. And when you eat at The Little Owl, you can’t help but feel a part of it, and that feels really good. And that my friends, is the reason we are here, and the reason we dine out.
The Little Owl is located at 90 Bedford Street (at Grove), 212-741-4695.
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Posted: July 10, 2006
Other restaurants in West Village :
+
Jefferson-- Closed +
La Palapa Rockola +
Sumile +
Babbo +
Tasca +
AOC Bedford +
Home +
The Spotted Pig +
Barbuto +
Numero 26 +
Mas +
August +
Alta +
Cru +
Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed +
Employees Only +
Lassi +
Metropol--Closed +
Turks and Frogs +
Bellavitae +
Yumcha-- CLOSED +
Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO +
Perry Street +
Home +
Ditch Plains +
The Little Owl +
Cafe Condesa +
Cafe Cluny +
Gusto +
The Waverly Inn +
Morandi +
P*ONG +
Perilla +
Soto +
Market Table +
Centro Vinoteca +
Barfry +
Dell'Anima +
Bar Blanc +
Smith's +
Commerce +
Elettaria +
Bar Q +
Cabrito +
10 Downing +
Minetta Tavern +
Braeburn +
Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires +
Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires +
Joseph Leonard +
Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires +
Kin Shop +
Monument Lane +
Wong +
Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak +
Ristorante Rafele +
Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe
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