Cozy up at Perbacco

Perbacco(www.perbacconyc.com ) Is an adorable, cozy romantic Italian restaurant tucked away in the East Village. The brick walls are lit by soft candles and there is light music playing in the background making this restaurant great for any occasion. There are a few long tables in the middle of the restaurant, so it would be great for groups too. Our waiter was very helpful with selecting a wine from the impressive wine list. We went with a Gavi (always works for us).

We toasted to the New Year and then our cheese plate arrived. It was beautiful (see picture below), an 18 month aged parmigiano reggiano, sweet gorgonzola, d.o.p, birro valtellina and castelmagno. Each cheese was paired to perfection with a honey, mustard, pepper spread and celery spread. The salad was very refreshing, the touch of honey really completed it. Then the meatballs arrived… they were delectable, absolutely cooked to perfection they melted in your mouth. Definitely one of the best meatballs we have had yet.



For our main course we had the Risotto al Tartufo and the seared tuna. There were so many truffles on top of and mixed in to the risotto it was a wonderful delicious surprise. The tuna was sliced into thin curls resting on top of a bed of chopped endive. It was cooked to perfection and paired beautifully with the endive.

Since it was early we fired we would have another bottle of wine with our dessert (good move!), the Hamburger Di Cioccolata (homemade chocolate slider) was not only the most adorable delicious dessert, and it was perfectly disguised! It literally looked like a burger and fries! The “bun” was angel food cake; the “lettuce/onions/tomato” was made up of caramelized apples with a light caramel sauce and the “meat” was a thick chocolate mousse. Next to this mini sweet slider were “fries and ketchup”. The “fries” were thinly sliced pears and the “ketchup” was a warm raspberry sauce, truly a beautiful presentation.



Whether you are looking for a quite cozy date night, dinner with your friends or just authentic excellent Italian food, head to Perbacco, you won’t be disappointed.

Bar Artisanal.. the disapointment

Bar Artisanal (http://www.artisanalbistro.com/) When walking in, you are immediately impressed by the large, well lit space with extremely high ceilings. There is a bar, a cheese bar and then various tables throughout. Now I must warn you now... we didn't not have the most "pleasant" experience with the host staff... When we arrived there were a number of open tables, however since we didn't have a reservation we were told the only place for us to sit was at the cheese bar.. host was rude and not accommodating whatsoever. So off to the cheese bar we went for a glass of wine and to scope out the cheeses before getting seated at a real table. We were given a cheese menu to look at (it's great cause you can check off the cheeses you like/want), however be careful asking to borrow a pen- if you don't return it immediately the person behind the cheese counter will stalk you 3 hours later to get it back!

Off to our table... LOTS of menus- they provide a small menu for you to "check off" which small plates you would like to try, a cheese menu (with suggested pairings), a wine/beer menu and finally a main menu. We enjoyed the wine we had started with (Albariño), but when we asked for a bottle to accompany dinner we were told that they had run out which was slightly disappointing. The cheese selection is fabulous as it is a collection of some of the great cheeses by Artisanal (www.artisanalbistro.com), so we started with a cheese plate- the cheeses were delicious! All of our favorites- Epoisse, Camembert, Taleggio, Gruyere, Humbolt Fog. It was a little difficult getting our waitresses attention, so we were unable to "pair" all of the cheese with wine since we ran out of wine and didn't get a refill until it was too late:(

For our main course we ordered a pizza, chicken, green beans and mac & cheese..... The pizza was good, but nothing to write home about. Now, here is where the meal took a serious turn for the worse... the chicken was SO salty, one bite was the equivalent of pouring a jar of salt into your mouth, and part of the chicken was raw....the green beans were good (only thing we were truly able to eat and enjoy), and to our disappointment our waitress forgot our mac & cheese! So overall, this was very disappointing.... Dessert managed to "save the night". The cherry creme brule was fabulous and the hazelnut mouse melted in your mouth. So overall, we could only suggest popping into Bar Artisanal for a nice cheese selection or dessert, but I don't see us running back anytime soon...

Enjoy the video.....