Po, at 31 Cornelia Street, NYC, is still a fun, very tasty spot for dinner. I ate there many years ago during the Mario Batali era, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I remarked that the cuisine rivaled the best Tuscan food I’ve had Stateside since living in Florence, and my food obsessed friend awarded “Babbo level pasta” to the Parpardelle. Chef Lee McGrath runs a lively restaurant with an A+ staff, great food, a really good wine list and we will both go back.
The narrow, white window-paned restaurant in the West Village provides a great backdrop for the very colorful Trattoria style menu, with its antipasti, primi, secondi, dolce menu that is familiar but def. a departure from a straight up traditional trattoria menu, with welcome variations on classic Tuscan themes. The yellow and red colors, lemon and peperoncini flavors, theme played throughout the menu and really worked to make the food visually memorable as well as v. tasty.
Here’s the play by play on the dishes we both agreed are Raves…
Fresh Marinated Anchovies, dried tomato tabbouleh
The anchovies were a standout- with some brightness added by lemon, they were over a sprouted earthy tabbouleh with a fantastic red pepper sauce. It was a great and original dish, but not overly complicated and the anchovies were not too overpowering as they can sometimes be. The red and yellow sauces, were both visually cool and provided a very interesting contrast between the hot red pepper sauce chasing the the anchovy flavor and then with the yellow lemon sauce bringing the anchovies in a different direction.
Grilled Portobello, arugula & shaved parmigiano-reggiano-
a good earthy salad. simple preparation, it is what it is and that’s why we like it.
Pappardelle, duck confit ragu was a supremely executed dish; we both agreed it was a favorite of all the dished we tried. It’s deceptively simple but all the elements of the dish were so well balanced with all the flavors having a clarity and pleasing combination at once; everything I like about Tuscan cooking. Everyone is familiar with this dish but Chef McGrath’s version at Po had a fresh, green parsley flavor mixed with minuscule caramelized onions that made that duck ragu slightly sweet, mixing with the sweet notes of the parsley, so it was not at all bitter. “I can’t even pin down why it was so perfect. It was Babbo level pasta.”
For wine, we had a really good, reasonably priced Valpolicella, Solane Santi 2007, which stood up well to the Braised Short Ribs. I really want to go back and try some of the fish dishes I missed.
