Frankies Spuntino 570 - NYC

In December I spent a long weekend in New York City. I went along with friends to celebrate a birthday. After doing a lot of research on restaurants and only going to one of them, we decided on the last day we had to try and make the effort to go to at least one more. We had a few places in mind, so we headed off to find Sorella. We had heard about Sorella after watching an episode of Iron Chef America where the head chef Emma Hearst aged 25 went head to head with Michael Symon. We didn't have a booking but thought something would work out, sadly we got to the restaurant and it was closed! We pulled out the list and picked the next place we thought might be good, so off we went to The Spotted Pig, a gastro pub type establishment in West Village / Greenwich area. Got to the pub and it was so busy we were told we would have to wait an hour and it was already 2:30pm and we were starving. Running out of ideas we headed back to a nice looking restaurant just down the road. It was called Frankies Spuntino 570.

Hipster was the word of the weekend, and I would have to say this place was pretty 'hipster'. It had a great Italian menu, items like Cured Meats, Salads, Mozzarella, Olives, Crostini, Pasta, Rabbit, Duck, Pork, etc, and a small modest list of Italian wines.
I ordered Crostini with White Anchovies. It was delicious! I hate those Brown Anchovies that come in a jar from the supermarket but I will never ever say no to fresh white Anchovies! $4 for one Crostini.

After that I could not chose between the Pork Cheek with Celeriac Root and the Roasted Rabbit Ragu with Braised Leeks. I ended up with the Rabbit as they had run out of the Pork. The Rabbit as you can see was like a soup that had pearl barley. A ordered the Lamb Ragu Pappardelle (yum, I was definitely going to put my fork in that one for a taste). 

Both dishes were amazing, they were so rich in flavour. We ordered glasses of Red Wine to accompany the food, and not being that familiar with Italian reds we just ordered what we thought might be nice. I ordered a Gradizollo and I can't remember what A ordered as it was so long ago (that will teach me for being slack with writing these blogs one month after the experience). Any way, they were both really nice wines that went well with the food. Had to ask for some bread, I am surprised it did not just come out to the table, any way, it was came with some lovely olive oil, the good quality stuff that is green! With my piece of bread dipped in olive oil and a touch of salt flakes added, delicious! We were so full that sadly we only had one course, but it was delicious all the same, and I highly recommend a visit to Frankies if you are heading to NYC. http://www.frankiesspuntino.com/