at the sign of The Pink Pig: Quick Bites: Sauce

[Pigging by Wilfrid: June 25, 2013]

Despite the recent revival in French (sometimes barely French) bistro food, ever since Carbone opened all people can talk about is Italian. Or Italian-American. Or red sauce. Or...never mind, it just reminded me.

All last year I kept walking by Sauce, on the corner of Rivington and Allen, and thinking--that looks pleasant, I wonder...

So with virtual red sauce coming out of my ears, I stopped by for a quick supper--on the outside "terrace" on a recent warm evening. And of course, it turns out it's not really a red sauce joint at all.

I'd risk calling it American Italian, by which I meant not the spaghetti-meatball/chicken-parm cuisine derived from the Italian-American community, but Italian food reinterpreted for a young, American dining demographic. The demographic was lining up for tables outside, or joining a lively party at the bar. No, this is not a place for quiet reflection over a long, lazy meal.

I grabbed the mildly pickled, oiled veggies, and two pleasant types of bread, took a slug of chilled rosato, and made haste with the big plastic menus (regular and specials--no recitations here).

As is appropriate (and I mean, to the young dining demographic rather than the picture-book Italian-American family), much of the food is designed to share. Cencioni loaded with meatballs and sausage ($28.85 a head), a "plank" smothered with polenta, bolognese, and the topping del giorno ($9.95 a head). On the special list, I was tempted by burrata with tomatoes and basil, but the price ($22-ish) made me think it would be too much cheese (almost an oxymoron, I know).

With restraint, I took the refreshing fava bean salad, with some (not strongly flavored) cheese grated on top, cherry tomatoes, and a pleasant, citrusy dressing.

I admit I headed here with a craving for bollito misto, and this wasn't quite the heaped plate of carnivorous carnage I had imagined (but it was only $17.95--priced like an appetizer, really). And I don't know how much credit goes to Sauce's touted "nose-to-tail" butcher, but we must take them at their word that everything is made in house.

So well done on the flavorful, appropriately rough-textured cotechino. The beef had an agreeable streak of well-cooked fat. Of the three meats, the pork (shoulder?) was least interesting, tending towards dry.

But that's what sauces are made for, although these would be best served in separate containers rather than bleeding together on the plate. The green sauce (mint) crept up on the red sauce (tomato?), and very much took it over. The horseradish could look after itself, and mostarda di frutta is one of my favorite things in the world, and capable of cheering up any tired pork.

I did order (and fail to photograph) a big bowl of hearty, cheesy (Parmigiano), polenta (side, $5.95), and the dish also came with an Italian take on bread sauce which was new to me, pera, involving breadcrumbs, stock, beef marrow, butter--and surely something to turn it that green color. Any Englishman would recognize this as a fine sauce for game.

So, what can I say? It was an enjoyable meal, set against a bubbly background, and one I'd happily eat again. Should you put it on your destination list? Ah, that's a harder question.