Good for a first date, a catch-up over glass of wine with a friend or just solo for a quick wind down on a week night, Gottino is a great "go-to" Italian wine bar, with an impressive and delicious small plate menu and a small, but well-selected wine list by the bottle and glass. A narrow space, with only a handful of relatively cramped tables, it's all about sitting at the marble bar, soaking in the wine and food knowledge of the bar keeps and taking in the farmhouse rustic and Italian kitchen atmosphere - I loved the piles of apples, chilis, and quince (I had to ask what these were) on the bar and downstairs in the wine cellar area. The menu offers a selection of cheeses, cured meats, crostini, vegetables and some hot small plates. Nothing is run of the mill - no Caprese salad on this menu - but, for example, wild boar country pate or cotechino (a blended pork sausage from the north) in roasted apples. The pate and artichoke crostini washed down with two glasses of the Oderro Barbera D'Alba made for a thoroughly tasty and filling dinner. And back to the topic of dating (why not?): my Italian dinner companion was lamenting the difficulty of dating all these "busy" women in New York. "Women in Italy," he said, "are not so busy". Mi dispiace, Alessandro, I sympathize, but I do need to go home and blog. Ciao!
