MARIANI’S
October 20,
2003
NEWSLETTER
EDITOR'S NOTE: This newsletter is
also available on the very
comprehensive food site www.sautewednesday.com
which has dozens of other links to food articles
from
around the world, as well as at The Grumpy Gourmet at
http://www.grumpygourmetusa.com/links.html
COVER STORY: The Isle of
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR: The Wines of
Abruzzo by Kirsten Skogerson
QUICK
BYTES
THE
ISLE OF CAPRI
by John Mariani
Entrance to
the Blue Grotto, Capri
Photo
by Galina Stepanoff-Dargery
I believe it is
impossible not to be enthralled by Capri. Once it
appears in sight, either from the serpentine of the Amalfi Coast or
from the
prow of a ferry out of Naples, its unabashed beauty rushes at you like
Sophia Loren
running up to kiss you smack on the lips.
From that moment on, you are helpless to resist.
With its
rugged coastline and towering rocks rising around it like fortress
walls, Capri always seems in the process of being discovered by new
suitors. Indeed, far too many of them
assault the island and clog the streets
from June through autumn, so getting out and beyond the main
squares is the first thing any sensible person does upon arrival. The Emperor Tiberius ruled Rome—rather
lackadaisically--from
a gloriously remote prospect called Villa Jovis, and the exquisite
Villa San Michele,
home of Swedish physician and writer Axel Munthe, is one of the
quietest and
lovely spots on the island, in the upper town of Anacapri, where my
wife and I
were fortunate to borrow a far more modest villa from a friend. Negotiation of the island by minibuses is not only easy but
highly recommended, since taxis are expensive.
Dining on 
We sat down on the
breezy, leafy terrace overlooking the bay (right) and dug into platters of
eggplant, zucchini, rollatine of meat and vegetables,
and
much more, all glossed with superb local olive oil.
We drank a Caprese white wine, then Roberto brought to our
table an impeccably grilled
pezzogna—a meaty local fish much
prized here, served with a big bowl of
garlic, lemon, and basil infused
oil. Truly extraordinary was a huge
serving dish of linguine with cherry tomatoes topped with a cicala
gigante, a fat, lobster-like
crustacean that can weigh up to five pounds.
Ours tilted the scales at about three and contained enough
very
sweet meat for both of us. (The name, by
the way, means “cicada,”
because the creature makes cicada-like noises underwater.)
Photo by
Galina Stepanoff-Dargery
One of the prettiest and
most cordial restaurants on
There are
complimentary
servings of pinzimonio (raw vegetables
you dip into olive oil), bruschetta,
and little fried bocconcini cheese balls to nibble on
while you peruse the
first-rate winelist here. We delighted
in a carpaccio of mussels and
octopus, just touched with olive oil and parsley,
then feasted on a housemade pasta of long, irregular strips, called scialatielli, with tomato, eggplant, and
smoked mozzarella, followed by excellent true scampi
(not shrimp) and gamberoni
(which are large shrimp),
just grilled
and dressed with salt, pepper and lemon. Agnolotti with a seafood filling
and
surrounded by clams and mussels were very good with a bottle of Coda di
Volpe ’02,
whose name means “tail of the wolf.” We finished with a densely
delicious torta of chocolate
and
almonds, while trying not to listen to a CD of a pianist playing every
song
with the slowness of a funeral dirge. Our
meal, with tax, service and wine, came to
$132.
Also up in Anacapri is La Rondinella
(Via G. Orlandi 25; 081-837-1223),
La
Rondinella
whose front room has a fine
arched ceiling and whose terrace is surrounded by
boxes of geraniums with bougainvillea curling towards a rustic
ceiling of wooden
lathe (right). The service here is
extremely friendly, the winelist contains more
than three pages of Campanian wines and the wine glasses themselves are
excellent.
It is a good place to sample wines you won't find elsewhere in
Italy, simple
wines, well-made wines, refreshing whites and sunny reds.
The antipasto table is is extensive,
particularly in seafood, so help yourself.
As many times as we saw
it on menus, it was hard to resist another portion of
ravioli alla Caprese,
and
La Rondinella’s came with a tantalizingly sweet
tomato sauce. We ordered a mixed grill of
swordfish,
scampi, calamari and red
shrimp, all cooked separately for texture. Veal
al limone was a fairly
standard
rendering.
part of a neighborhood whose locals are known by name by the owner.
It would be easy enough
to say you’ll eat well everywhere on Capri, but this is simply not the
case,
appealing as restaurants must to all sorts of tourists, from the
hyper-wealthy who
dine at the posh restaurants at the grand hotels like Quisisana and
Scalinatella, to the
thousands wearing fanny packs and rhinestone t-shirts who grab panini or pizza
and go on their way to buy yet more t-shirts and trinkets.
Somewhere in
between are gullible tourists who trust their concierge to give them
sound
advice, but I suspect too many of those concierges have cushy
relationships
with Il
Cucciolo (Via La Fabbrica 52;
081-837-1917), which is impossible to
find down a circuitous series of one-lane streets in Anacapri, so the
restaurant sends a fellow to pick you up at your hotel.
Don’t waste his time.
The situation of Il Cucciolo
is handsome indeed, overlooking the waters near the Blue Grotto. But
for some
reason the owners have installed garish green fluorescent lights in one
room
that make everyone look like the sick elephant in Babar and do nothing for
the appearance of the food either. Portions are generous, but we
couldn’t finish any
of them—not the awful scaialatielli
with clams and zucchini flowers swimming in
a brown sauce or the overcooked paccheri
pasta with what tasted like canned
porcini and stray bits
of pancetta, or a tasteless
slab of beef. Grilled prawns proved tough
and chewy. To
indicate the low level of ingredients here, the table is set with a
very poor
olive oil and a bottle of balsamic vinegar bottled by Heinz!
By the way, while it is pretty swank to drink in the
bars at the big hotels, the main action is around the Piazza Alberto,
but right down the block, at the Piazza Capri, the Bar Alberto (Via Roma 9), owned by
Maria Giovanna Lembo and her sons, serves some of the best pastries,
coffee and drinks on the island, and it's always buzzing from breakfast
through evening. Say hello to Gilberto Cuomo for me, and gain an
instant friend of the house.
It is entirely possible
that any food served in an atmosphere high above the choppy
photo by Galina Stepanoff-Dargery
NEW YORK CORNER by
John Mariani
CAFE DES ARTISTES
33 West 67th
Street
212-721-3100
The splendid building called the Hôtel des
Artistes, built between 1915 and 1918, has been home to the Café des
Artistes on its ground floor since the beginning and has since
counted scores of artists and musicians as residents in its huge
studio-based apartments, including Isadora Duncan, Norman Rockwell,
Noel Coward, Alexander Woollcott, and the Cafe's current owners, George
Lang and his wife Jenifer, who manages the restaurant. It was not until 1932, however, that the
building's board of directors thought it a capital idea for artist
Howard Chandler Christy, who was born in a log cabin in Ohio and rose
to become one of the most successful magazine illustrators of his day,
to paint a series of murals (below)
featuring 36 nude girls and one oddly diapered he-man romping in a
sylvan setting that looks a lot more like Central Park (which the
Café borders) than Arcadia. Indeed, these extremely sexy
murals look like a rather randy version of "Flash Gordon Meets the
Amazons of Venus," starring Buster Crabbe, Myrna Loy, Rosalind
Russell, and Jean Harlow. And they are glorious! 
The murals have always had a lot to do with the
Cafe's success over the decades, although Lang had to remove a
quarter-inch of soot from the smoky walls when he purchased the
restaurant in 1975 (it was due to close and the murals to be
scattered), re-lighting it and giving it a gaiety it had not seen in
years. He also brought the menu into the post-war period with a
large sampling of traditional French and American bistro items and more
than a nod to Lang's own Hungarian culinary heritage, which included
his mother's famous chocolate Ilona torte, still on the menu today and
still a formidable piece of pastry. For more than a quarter
century Lang has maintained the Café through various chefs and
maître d's, some better than others, as was the food during their
tenures. I suppose I've been going to the Café for as long as
Lang has owned it, always with a thrill that I am in the midst of
something uniquely New York and unobtainable anywhere else, always with
the possibility that at the next table may be Paul Newman, Beverly
Sills, Isaac Stern, or any of the Hollywood actors who happen to be in
town or on Broadway.
The food has never been less than delicious here,
but now, with the assumption of kitchen duties by young chef Ari
Nieminen (formerly of The Firebird), the menu has been trimmed, made
more seasonal, and refined to the point where every dish sings in
harmony with each other and with the highly romantic tenor of the
Café itself. (I use a musical metaphor because George Lang
is an accomplished violinist and bosom buddy to many classical
musicians.) On my most recent visit the place never looked
better, brighter or cheerier, those splendid nudes still winking and
seeming to flirt with everyone throughout the evening. (One
overly bright spot is the large round table near the
entrance.)
Under Jenifer Lang's gaze the staff is exceptionally
professional, the coat check girls beautiful, and the waiters
knowledgeable about everything from the food preparation to the
winelist, which is good though not exceptional for New York. The
dinner menu now lists ten appetizers and an equal number of entrees,
described simply, without foodie flourishes. Thus, when you order
"fresh sardines, grilled, served with a Mediterranean salad," that's
what you get: Impeccably fresh sardines, perfectly cooked to give them
a crispy exterior and moist interior--certainly among the best I've
ever tasted--with a salad of black olives, lemon, tomato
concasse, red onion, cucumbers, and olive oil. Salmon five ways"
involves silky hot-smoked and cold-smoked versions, along with gravlax
and a tartare, and a poached item too, all made from the very finest
salmon. A spicy pumpkin soup hit just the right touch for early
autumn, really tasting of the squash itself, not overpowered by the
spicing. Seared foie gras came with fresh rhubarb tamed with
50-year-old balsamic vinegar, and very delicious indeed was a creamy
wild mushroom ragoût with tender fingerling potatoes. What
utterly satisfying food!
We then moved on to true Dover sole, fat and meaty,
with brown butter and lemon, sidled with fondant potato and first-rate
asparagus (how often they are not elsewhere). A rack of lamb was
quite good, cooked in a pesto crust with mascarpone-basil potato
purée and pittypan squash, which seemed a little out of
character by virtue of overload. A stark naked steak frites,
however, could not have been improved upon, the meat chewy and beefy
and succulent, the French fries crisp and flavorful. Perhaps best
of all was duckling done two ways, as a tea-smoked breast and a crisp
confit leg, which came with potato pancakes (I would kill for a dozen
more), caramelized apple, and braised red cabbage. More autumnal
than this you cannot get.
Despite the richness of the food here--in depth of
flavor not, without any heavy sauces, we were still enchanted by
the prospect of dessert, simply because if one has dined so well up
until then, desserts will probably be just as wonderful. They
were--the Ilona torte was as good or better than ever; a trio of
crème brûlées--vanilla, chocolate and lavender--
were perfect; and apple strüdel (to which I'm sure Lang bestows
his imprimatur) was flaky and packed with sweet apples, with a vanilla
sauce and caramel ice cream. There was nothing wrong with Key
lime pie with coconut sorbet and tropical fruit salad, nor with a
banana hazelnut torte with a scrumptious hazelnut crust. With this we
enjoyed an appropriate Hungarian Tokay Aszu "6 puttonyos" '93, from
vineyards Lang himself oversees (did I mention he is a partner at the
famous Gündel restaurant in Budapest?).
Returning to an old restaurant after so many new
ones have impressed me in so many cities is not always pleasing, or
even wise. One can love places like Café des Artistes out
of all semblance of objectivity. And I admit to falling under its
spell. But I also know that the food has taken on a new spark,
and what was old seems brand new, as well as a reminder of just how
consistently enjoyable classics made with respect can be. I would
happily eat here every week I was in town if I didn't have to attend to
all the new places. So, having weathered nearly nine decades in
business, long may the Café des Artistes prosper. And long
may those Christy nymphs wave back at us.
First courses range from $9-$17, entrees
$27-$42. The winelist is more than serviceable if less than
stellar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
THE WINES OF ABRUZZO TAKE
WING
The wine country of Abruzzo
I encountered my
first Abruzzese wines in a former
life as a line cook at a contemporary Italian restaurant in
It’s been years since I worked the line and since
then
Abruzzese producers have joined the southern Italian wine renaissance. This past summer I traveled from winery to
winery through the countryside where the agricultural patchwork of
vines is
spectacularly framed by the
The primary black grape of the region is
Montepulciano
d’Abruzzo and the primary white, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo.
Of course the standard international
varieties are also found—chardonnay claims the third largest area
under vine—but native grapes are the primary source of the most
interesting and
unique wines of the region.
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo yields approachable wines
characterized by
purplish hues, soft tannins, and a range of red berry to dark fruit
aromas
interwoven with earthy undertones.
Showing some versatility, it is used in the production of
a range of
wines from Cerasuolo, a dry rosé noted for its cherry and floral
aromas, to
straightforward reds presenting ripe red and dark cherry or plum fruit,
on to
the most complex expressions of the variety where concentrated fruit is
joined
by tobacco, dried herbs, wet stone and leather aromas.
These wines are capable of great depth and
intensity without being unnecessarily weighty or concentrated.
Trebbiano d’Abruzzo lacks the complexity and nuances
of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, yet yields simple but refreshing,
light-bodied
wines with citrus, apple, peach and floral aromas.
This variety is frequently blended with a
small percentage of Chardonnay or Passerina to add body, sweetness or
acidity.
Below are brief descriptions of a few wines from the
Abruzzo region deserving of a taste.
AGRIVERDE (www.agriverde.it)
Curved
wooden beams support the steel wave-shaped roof of the striking wood and glass
structure of Agriverde’s new cellar. By
design, the curves reflect the sea waves to one side of the estate and
foothills of
The entrance to Illuminati
sports three gasoline-like pumps where local folks secure supplies of
red,
white and rosé wines (complete with hose delivery system,
digital readout, and
automatically printed receipt!). At
around one euro per liter it’s difficult not to feel envious; however,
those of
us unable to fill jugs on site can take comfort that Illuminati’s
bottled wines
are widely available in the
Though work to move toward
quality wines was begun at this estate in the 80’s, it wasn’t until
1996 that
the first bottles appeared on the market.
It hasn’t taken them long to join the ranks of the more
established
estates. Don’t be misled by the
relatively unremarkable entry-level wines under the Dama label
(named
for Dante Marramiero, father of current proprietor Enrico). Instead try one of their best sellers, Anima
’02. This bright, fresh,
un-oaked
Trebbiano has light but interesting pineapple and floral notes. Incanto ‘00 was produced in response
to an importer’s request for un-oaked Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and is a
solid
example of the earthy fruit of this variety.
In contrast, Inferi ‘98 (which accounts for one
third of the
total production), is aged in barrique.
This wine has a spicy, dark fruit nose that is mirrored on
the
palate. The level of craftsmanship in
this wine is evident in the well-integrated tannins and oak notes, as
well as
the lengthy, balanced finish.
MASCIARELLI
One
of the most visible Abruzzese producers is Gianni Masciarelli whose
wines are
imported by the Massachusetts-based import company he founded in 1987. “Every good winemaker has two cellars—one in
concrete and another under the stars,” states Masciarelli and the
efforts this
estate has placed in both are evident in the entire range of wines. In addition to the classic estate wines
(which are sound examples of this region’s wines), the winery produces
wines
under the Villa Gemma and Marina Cvetić labels. The classic line Montepulciano d’Abruzzo ’01
has a fruity nose with gamy undertones with a well-structured, fruity
finish. Villa Gemma ’98 is more complex
with additional notes of sweet spices and toasted oak, greater length
and more
elegant tannins. One of the more unusual wines they produce is the barrique fermented and matured Marina
Cvetić late harvest Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, intensely colored, with orange
overtones. A complex spectrum of fruit
ranging from apricot to blanched tomato is evident on both nose and
palate
where the slightly oxidized aromas are reminiscent of sherry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUT DOESN’T THE
QUARTERBACK ACTUALLY
SHOW UP TO PLAY AT
THE SUPERBOWL?
and I mention that I just happen
to be the quarterback.”
--Emeril Lagasse
quoted in Nation’s Restaurant News (
MOST WINCING WORD
COINAGE OF THE MONTH
“Light-brothed" New England
clam chowder.
—Alison Arnett, in a review
of Gatehouse Restaurant, The Boston Globe (
*
www.petitlouis.com.
* On Oct. 23
NYC’s Ristorante
Barolo (398 West
Broadway) in
* On Oct. 27 NYC’s Veritas (
*On Oct. 31 seven NY restaurants participate
in "Trick-or-Treat
for UNICEF" campaign, donating $1 for every lunch and dinner
patron.
A complete list of
participating restaurants
with contact information is available by
visiting www.unicefusa.org/gourmet
or www.gourmetscoop.com.
* On Halloween Night, Charleston’s Circa 1886 offers dinner with ghost stories told by
resident storyteller, Tim Lowry, as guests follow him
through the gardens to the 117-year-old former carriage house. Proceeds
to the
*On Oct. 31 NYC’s Four Seasons
restaurant (
John Mariani is a
columnist for Esquire, Wine
Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author
of The
Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The
Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife
Galina,
the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common
Press). To purchase from amazon.com, click on the
image below.
copyright John Mariani 2003