You’ll be reading more about Bar LaGrassa, the latest restaurant by Isaac Becker & Nancy St. Pierre of 112 Eatery and Josh Thoma of La Belle Vie, Solera et. al. in the upcoming December food issue of Metro Magazine.

So, of course it’s good. It’s great. There’s a sort of can’t-go-wrong assumption with this real-life dream team—Thoma and Becker met over a decade ago when they were both cooking at the original D’Amico Cucina, and both have an intimate love and knowledge of Italian cooking.

This understanding shows on the comprehensive yet tightly executed menu, which features about twenty different pastas dry and fresh, about half as many takes on bruscetta, inspired antipasti like piquant pickled tomatoes scattered with creamy goat cheese or simple grilled prawns with nothing more than a squeeze of lemon to brighten things.



There’s also a smattering of entrees from a $15 grilled sausage to an $80 bistecca for four, but I admit I haven’t been able to get that far on the menu, the pastas and simple snacks are done so well. Like 112, LaGrassa offers up so much value, it’s almost more expensive to cook at home—and let’s face it: yours isn’t going to be nearly as good.

I run around in a lot of chef and cook circles, and LaGrassa is everyone’s current pick for where they want to eat-- after work, on their one day off. Sometimes, it’s even in spite of themselves, as they’re a competitive bunch. But, they can’t help themselves. Belly up to the pasta bar if you want to brush shoulders with the city’s finest kitchen staff-- they’ll be there indulging in eight-dollar half orders of fresh orrechiette and paparrdelle, just like you. 



The pasta bar is also nice as you can watch the action, and chef Becker personally serves your dishes. Check out their beautiful website which has recently added pornographic visuals of a number of dishes (roll your mouse over the little chef’s toques for photos).

Other News:

Ngon & Moto-I are both now offering brunch, TCBY is giving away a store to the contest entrant with the best videotaped explaination of why they ought to win, the somehow light-as-a-feather Scotch Egg with housemade andouille at Nick & Eddie is haunting my dreams, and Heidi’s is celebrating their second anniversary. Happy birthday.

Correction:

In my previous post I said that the Jewish cooking classes being offered by Chef Stewart Woodman begin on November 30th. The first class is actually on November 16th. I also misspelled chef Woodman’s name. I regret the errors. To register for the classes, you may email: ninas@adath.net.