Food & Drink

Dull night at the museum

A new restaurant doesn’t have to be wonderful to be lovable. But love can only take a place so far. Take Caffe Storico at the New-York Historical Society, dewy as a spring rose after two months. Why grump over a sunny trattoria inside a once-stodgy museum with a menu that reads as golden as midday light through the windows?

Because with the Italian dining scene in need of a shot of creative adrenaline, Caffe Storico’s kitchen could use some strong espresso. Stone-hard meatballs without sauce are not the thing to put your house-pride cicchetti (small plates) on the map.

Judged merely as a sweet ornament to uptown’s noshing-nightcrawling life, the place deserves four stars. Greeters and waiters are all smiles. Certain dishes are terrific. But 18 months of hype and high expectation call for more.

Caffe Storico is run by mega-restaurateur Stephen Starr, who brought us vibrant Buddakan and Morimoto. It arrives just as Manhattan’s Italian scene is reeling from the loss of several great places, which were replaced by stinkers with chefs who were either from out of town — or just over the hill.

And, thanks to a sensitive $65 million restoration, the New-York Historical Society emerged from decades of near-irrelevance with sparkling new galleries and a rich embrace of the city around it from which it once seemed to hide.

The restaurant’s the belle of the museum’s coming-out party — a high-ceilinged, hard-edged space in cheerful lemon yellow and white. Porcelain and china from the Historical Society’s collection adorn shelves that soar 15 feet to the ceiling.

A West 77th Street entrance establishes Storico as a destination in its own right, not an appendage to the museum — although it can feel that way at lunch, when harsher lighting casts a gift-shop glare.

Diners get a culture fix with their cuisine, thanks to an interior window facing the sculpture collection; Upper West Siders’ proletarian sympathies are nourished by the sight of a workman with a bucket and mop at 10 p.m.

The culinary labor’s on view in an open kitchen fronted by a marble counter, where it’s fun to sit. Executive chef Jim Burke’s menu calls itself Venetian, a bold claim for a thoroughly mainstream lineup from Sicilian tuna to Milanese veal osso bucco.

Cicchetti ($5 to $16) are hit-or-miss. Chicken liver crostini induce moans — the meat crumbly, herbally assertive and served on crunchy grilled bread. But doughy arancini and dreary octopus inspired little hope for the rest of the meal (northern-style pasta $16 to $22, mains $24 to $29).

Roasted sea bass was expertly turned out twice, with crisp skin, moist flesh and cannellini-like coco di mama beans. Wild mushroom risotto arrived dreamy-creamy, the mushrooms swirled throughout carnaroli rice like sugar atop cappuccino and tangibly fresh.

But, “Where’s our food?” a friend muttered of an interminable wait between courses on a night when the house was near-empty. “What are all those cooks doing?”

After long delays, dishes weirdly had a rushed quality. Mis-timed pasta arrived lukewarm. Salmon ordered medium-rare was so overcooked it hardly resembled salmon. Inadequately braised veal osso bucco clung stubbornly to the bone.

Some kitchens work better under pressure. On a night when the house was full and throbbing, they thoughtfully reined in chocolate shavings on duck ragu pappardelle which I’d written in a recent column had tasted like candy. Much obliged!

But osso bucco was again tough. Tuna roe seemed scarce in garganelli with bottarga di muggine. Toasted pine nuts and breadcrumbs lent crackle — thank you, Michael White influence! — but what was that cream bath? Milky cauliflower purée, more dairy than I want before bed.

Desserts like warm apple crostata are fine. But the well-chosen, all-Italian wine list (all below $100) needs better storing and serving.

Sicilian syrah Planeta arrived corked. It was cheerfully replaced. But another time, the most our waitress was able to tell us about 2005 Brunello di Montalcino was that it “was sitting in the bottle for a while.”

The wine was perfect, but the restaurant needs a while. Let’s hope that in a few months, Caffe Storico has a better story to tell.