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“Aroma Kitchen and Winebar”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	East Village	Moderate	Good

to, who is the chef and wine director (there are 150 Italian wines on the list), is a native of Potenza, Italy. Together, here on East 4th Street, they manage to fill their precious few hundred square feet with passion enough for the most gargantuan of spaces.

 

Alison and I had dinner at Aroma on clear, cold night last week, and could not have been happier or cozier. The place just oozes charm with its weathered walls and long bar crowded with friends and couples drinking wine, deep in close conversation. We started off with a glass of Montefalco Rosso and a plate of beautiful sopressatta dolce from Monte San Giacomo in Campania paired with a few slices of nutty Pecorino del Cilento, which is from Campania as well. After the cheese and the meat were annihilated, we moved onto a bowl of olives, and swiped fresh crusty bread into a saucer of grassy olive oil. This is the way to eat-a night of wine, ripe cheese, briny olives, and cured pig parts. I felt like I was back in Roma.

 

While I could have very easily eaten just that for dinner, I thought you all might want to know a bit more about the food than just what sort of salami was on the menu. And so we ate. First off, we had an order of suppli di riso, a Roman version of the standard Sicilian arancini. These need to be ordered in multiples. They are perfectly round ping-pong ball-sized risotto balls, fried to golden and salty crisp, filled with creamy parmesan risotto and a core of melting mozzarella. Heaven. The warm beet salad ($10), which arrived next, is actually more of a beet terrine, layered with fig jam and gorgonzola. While Alison liked its overwhelming sweetness, I found it unbalanced and too far into the realm of dessert. It could have also used some texture, even just a crostini. But the baked stuffed calamari ($12) was a terrific success. I thought it embodied all the elements of a perfect dish-contrasting texture and lively well-articulated flavors. Three fat squid are plumped up with a filling made from almonds, shrimp, capers, fennel and parsley and then simply grilled and glossed with olive oil and finished with lemon and olives.

 

More wine was poured as we decided on what to have next. Vito offers a choice of a few homemade pastas (in ample portions), including a beet lasagna with Bolognese ($17), and a ricotta cavatelli with sweet fennel, spicy sausage, broccoli rabe and pecorino ($16). We went with beet strachetti, made from the lo ... [more, click below]

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Posted: December 11, 2006

Other restaurants in East Village :
+ Yujin-- Closed   + Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar   + Mermaid Inn   + Five Points   + Lavagna   + Five Points   + Bond Street   + Jewel Bako   + Alphabet Kitchen   + In Vino   + Bao 111   + Chikalicious   + Il Buco   + Hearth   + Lima's Taste   + Mercadito   + Hedeh   + Momofuku   + Una Pizza Napoletana   + Winebar   + Uovo-- CLOSED   + Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction   + Gotham Bar & Grill   + Colors   + Chinatown Brasserie   + Knife and Fork   + European Union-- NEW CHEF; SEE APRIL 2007 Review   + Aroma Kitchen and Winebar   + Stand   + European Union   + Mercat   + Gemma   + Back Forty   + The Smith   + Seymour Burton   + Belcourt   + Graffiti   + The Redhead   + Double Crown    + Apiary   + Joe Doe   + Apiary by guest reviewer Kiri Tannenbaum   + DBGB   + Northern Spy   + Goat Town   + Saxon + Parole   + Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria   + Acme   + Calliope   + Nicoletta   + JEPPNEY by Claire Jaffe   + Feast   

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