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“Bacaro/Smith & Mills”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Tribeca	Moderate	Good

nce of dining in New York is the wait, here it may be your entire experience. This place is a zoo. A fun, sexy, stunning zoo, but still. I'd get there early.

We weren't going anywhere though, since our pastas had just arrived. As we dug in, Robin started telling me about her new running clothes. She decided that running down the West Side Highway in seven layers of sweatshirts, turtlenecks, and sweatpants made her look like "Fat Albert" (she's tiny), and so she invested in some sleek high-tech warm clothes for her morning runs. I told her I sympathized, that I've run outside in the cold too, and that I tended to resemble Big Mama in my layers. "What do you do now?" she asked. "Nothing. I still look like Big Mama. I don't underestimate the joy of being warm and round," I said, stabbing a creamy gnocchi with my fork.

Yes, about those pastas. The gnocchi with wild mushrooms was just I hoped it would be-light and airy potato dumplings in an earthy mushroom sauce plied with meaty mushrooms ($14). The bigoli in salsa ($16) didn't meet my expectations, though. An al dente tangle of whole wheat spaghetti gets dressed in an assertive anchovy sauce that was too oily (a puddle of it glistened at the bottom of the bowl, actually), but still wonderfully steeped in the meaty essence of those unctuous little fish. The menu offers several large plates that we didn't get to-lasagna with smoked mozzarella and raddichio ($15), pork shanks over polenta ($18), and braised duck legs with white beans ($14) and platters of cheese and meat ($14). They're on my list for my next visit.

While we finished our pastas and a bit more Lambrusco, I was stopped mid-bite of spaghetti by a song on the iPod playing overhead. Spaghetti hanging out of my mouth, I smiled and practically started crying and laughing at the same time. It was a song from my childhood (and possibly yours), a song I played over and over on our record player, a song I ran around singing at the top of my lungs all over my house. Perhaps the last time I heard it I was seven or eight, but there it was, playing overhead at Bacaro-Marlo Thomas and Friends' "Free to Be...You and Me." No, I am not joking. I had my own private flashback in my mind as the words played overhead-"In a land where the river runs free, In a land through the green country, In a land to a shining sea, And you and me are free to be you and me." If ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 7, 2008

Other restaurants in Tribeca :
+ Lunchbox Food Company--Closed   + 66: THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED   + Ola-- Closed   + Bouley   + Dominic   + Landmarc   + Pace-- Closed   + EN Japanese Brasserie   + Centrico   + Cercle Rouge   + The Harrison   + Turks & Frogs Tribeca   + Devin Tavern   + Dani-- Closed Now   + Bacaro/Smith & Mills   + The Harrison   + Matsugen, By Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Forge   + Macao Trading Company   + Harbour   + Review text tbd...   + Mehtaphor   + Brushstroke   + Jung Sik   

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