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“Ristorante Rafele”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	West Village	Moderate	Great

skipped anything in this vain. For one, tiramisu has always seemed dated to me, and the last one I had tasted like some vaguely coffee-flavored baby food. And cheesecake can be so cold and grainy. But there are times when I am wrong. Horribly wrong. And this is one of them. Rafele has restored these desserts to their place on the shelf of classics to honor and respect. In my book, they’re hanging out right next to Calliope’s baba au rhum.

Now take a breath. Sit back and take a look around the restaurant. Friends are passing around baskets of warm bread and olive oil, platters of fried calamari, tossed together in crunchy heaps tangled with zucchini, fennel and sage, and bowls of roasted cauliflower, speckled with black currants, pine nuts, and bread crumbs ($13). A group of girlfriends are air kissing and congregating at the chef’s table, toasting to something. A job? A proposal? Who knows. Who cares. They are happy. A couple from the neighborhood catches up at the bar over many glasses of that Lambrusco sangria. There is a sense of sweetness and ease to the restaurant. In some ways it is the antithesis of hot spots where the energy, the hype, the noise level, is so high that it shatters any possibility of restoration with your meal. And sometimes, at the end of the day, you need that. You need to be fed, nurtured, and restored. This is that place. And to think--we could’ve lost Rafele to Hollywood.

Ristorante Rafele is located at 29 Seventh Avenue South at Morton Street, 212-242-1999.

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Posted: August 2, 2012

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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