Familiar with the hard-boiled eggs served at the bar at Keens? This black-olive-brined warm quail’s egg gives the idea a gourmet Italian-American spin.
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Who’d have thought an haute cuisine dish could reference NYC’s favorite street snack? These baked-to-order pretzels do.
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The “smoky” Torrisi dish is inspired by New York’s famed Stork Club where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe (below)used to hang. The “cigarette” (left) is actually fried dough wrapped in smoked sable.
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Two ubiquitous NYC foodstuffs — Bloch & Guggenheimer peppers and Schaefer beer — radically transform the raw-bar course.
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The kasha knish at Yonah Schimmel on the LES reimagined as traditional caviar service? Meshuga!
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A hand-painted Easter egg filled with sabayon, asparagus and field caviar tips its hat to Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s signature caviar egg.
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Low-rent Chinese takeout and the Nuts4Nuts cart are the unlikely inspirations for this luxurious morsel of candied cashew chicken.
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What would the august Sirio Maccioni — credited with inventing pasta primavera at Le Cirque — think of this new-school riff made with rigatoni croutons?
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Acqua pazza — an Old World dish originating from Neapolitan fishermen — gets a New World spin with local mackerel and seaweed.
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Foie gras Newberg pays homage to that old Delmonico’s war horse: lobster Newberg.
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A Delmonico’s cut of steak is given the tartare treatment and topped with encapsulated bernaise sauce. (No, it’s not an egg yolk!)
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The only sheep’s-milk ricotta made in America (from upstate’s Dancing Ewe Farms) is used to create these delicate seasonal gnocchi.
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A lazy Sunday spent fishing on Long Island helped conjure up this spaghettini dish made with both soft- and hard-shell crab.
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The great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso would no doubt adore this chicken liver raviolo — a twist on spaghetti alla Caruso.
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Baby lamb glazed in Manischewitz and garnished with fried Jerusalem artichokes offers a taste of Rome by way of Rivington Street.
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Time for a digestif! In this case, bitter greens tossed with a vinaigrette made from Fee Brothers lemon bitters.
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An improbable mash-up of a cheese danish and an everything bagel: Triple-cream goat cheese on a poppy seed Danish with red onion jam.
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Yes, the Lemon Ice King of Corona really did inspire this palate cleanser.
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A candy straw, homemade maraschino soda and pretzel crumbs transport you back in time to the soda-shop counter.
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If you’ve ever walked into Ferrara Bakery and thought, “I’ll have one of everything,” well, here you go — an array of gourmet Italian cookies.
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