[Pigging by Wilfrid: June 29, 2015]
Loisaida Avenida. Known as such in honor of the long-established Puerto Rican community east of Avenue B. And indeed I have Puerto Rican friends who were born on the Avenue, and have lived there all their lives.
Nevertheless, the designation sometimes seems merely picturesque, now that Avenue C, and the streets running off, are filled with young professionals, new to the neighborhood, heading out for cocktails or dinner.
It's too late to be amazed that somewhere like Virginia's would open just off Avenue C on East 11th. It's in the old Kasadela space--that beloved izakaya which never recovered from Hurricane Sandy. It was back in 2011 that I wrote about the influx of cocktail bars along the strip for the New York Times' Local East Village blog: Summit Bar, The Third Man, Evelyn Drinkery, The Wayland, and Louis 649 (now Mace). Restaurants too along this very short nightlife parade of six or seven blocks: Edi & the Wolf, Kafana, BobWhite, Matilda's, Le Jardin (just closed), and the old standbys: Zum Schneider, Esperanto, and Casa Adela (not to be confused with Kasadela).
So don't throw up your hands in disbelief when I say that dinner at Virginia's can easily set you back $100 before tax and tip. That's Alphabet City, 2015-style. The thing is, the food is that good. The chef, Christian Ramos, comes here from David Bouley's Danube, and Per Se, and you can believe it.
The menu proposes small and large plates, with sides and desserts, so despite the increasingly dreaded "small plate" term, it's a real restaurant, not some kind of useful place for grazing with drinks (although that's how people will use it). Aside from a summer squash toast for $6, the small plates are priced in the $12 to $16 range. And good luck sharing them.
I say that on the basis of the cuttlefish composition, which was excellent, but very small indeed. You know you're in business when a kitchen can get cuttlefish exactly, precisely right. Not rubbery, not mushy: pliant and biteable. A very slight char on the little splinters of cephalopod, and a timely garnish of green garlic and asparagus. The plate was bordered by a chili mayonnaise, which brought slow-building heat.
There will always be debate about whether a valid opinion of a restaurant can be advanced on the basis of one meal. Sometimes that's not possible. But a kitchen doesn't ace cuttlefish and pork loin by sheer luck (and the place was full on a Saturday night; I waited about ten minutes to grab a table). This was a cut of red wattle, cooked on the bone to a perfect rosy medium. Some white asparagus cowering behind it.
I thought I'd need a side with this, and I was right. A bold tangle of multi-colored greenmarket carrots, with pickled ramps and baby turnips. Nothing I could fault about any of this. But let's recognize that, including the side (which I admit was shareabe) it was a $35 course. Large plates on the regular menu are priced $24-$26 (unless you stick to the pasta). This was a verbally announced special: $29.
But I was enjoying everything so much, I splurged on a $9 dessert. The three on offer all looked exceptionally imaginative--Oaxacan chocolate beet cake with beet cream, anyone?--but I easily sold myself the raw honey panna cotta.
The lack of a really punchy raw honey flavor made this the weakest dish I tried. Merely very good. The sharp rhubarb made the panna cotta interesting, and the little bricks of rye biscotti added texture.
I guess we don't think twice about a three figure check for three courses (and a side) and three glasses of wine in midtown, or the Village proper, or SoHo; and yet, despite all my strictures about the changes in the neighborhood, it still came as a bit of a surprise. You can do somewhat better than that if you share one of the more inexpensive bottles of wine. By the glass--my route--starts at $8, which these days is a steal. I drank an organic Chardonnay, a simple Beaujolais-Villages, and a Pineau des Charentes which sang with the dessert. So, yes, I should probably have got a bottle.
What a fine little restaurant. But understand what it is. Website here.
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