If you’re traveling to Staten Island for some reason this
year, there are some new, chic shopping
locations springing up in the Forgotten Borough, and no shortage of spectacular
Italian food for you to sample. While the Island has its rough edges, we have
been visiting for years and have always found that the excellent dining options
smooth them all out – in fact, I’ve never had a bad meal on Staten Island.
Recently, I visited Patrizia’s, on Amboy Road in SI’s
Eltingville neighborhood, and my impression of the Island’s superiority in
Italian restaurants was reinforced. This strip mall outlet of the
Brooklyn-based, family-owned mini-chain was bursting at the seams already at 6
p.m. on a Saturday, and by the time we left, there were probably 25 more
families just waiting for a table. It’s tough to inspire a fan base like that
in today’s crowded restaurant market, but our dinner at Patrizia’s proved to be
waiting-in-line-worthy.
You’re most likely going to notice two big components of
having a good time at Patrizia’s before your first course even arrives at your
table. First of all, this restaurant has maybe the coolest, most raucous
birthday procedure ever. At least nine times during our meal, a loud birthday
song came over the speakers in the dining room, and patrons twirled their
napkins in the air at just about every table as the wait staff sung along to
the guest of honor. It was incredibly fun and fostered a familial atmosphere in
the room. When a patron at a neighboring table thwacked me in the head with his
napkin, I even hugged him. Second, that wait staff is almost entirely comprised
of charming young men straight from Italy. They speak Italian and have charming
accents, and if that doesn’t set the scene for authentic continental fare, I
don’t know what does.
As one of the members of our party was a vegetarian, we
started our meal with the buffalo mozzarella with caponata and cherry tomatoes.
But before that dish even came, we received a big basket of crusty bread with
wonderful, seasoned dipping oil and a family style salad made with mixed greens
plus red onion, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers so vibrant they may have been
rendered in Technicolor. Passing that salad around the table immediately
underscored the family feel – what a smart way to have every table feeling the
love straight away.
The demi-lunes of buffalo mozzarella on our appetizer plate
were achingly fresh and milky, while the caponata – a mix of roasted and
marinated red bell peppers, onions, zucchini, and eggplant – was sugary sweet
and velvety. Fresh cherry tomatoes tossed with olive oil and seasoned with salt
and pepper completed the plate and added a different note of both sweetness and
acidity. This was a big platter of treats, too, not some skimpy, three slices of cheese and a quarter cup of
veg affair. There was plenty of stunning food for all five of us.
After another rousing rendition of the birthday song, our
entrees arrived. Among the standouts were the house made potato gnocchi with
pesto. Gnocchi are often described as pillows, but these really were ethereal
and lighter than air – soft puffs of earthy potato enrobed in a verdant green
sauce smacking of fresh basil and anchored by the nuttiness of good parmigiana
cheese. Of the dishes we ordered, this one may have been the most simple, but
the vegetarian of our group found it ticked all her boxes for a successful dish.
On special the night we dined at Patrizia’s was a squid ink
linguine with seafood and olives in a light red sauce. This gorgeous dish was
colorful, soulful, and jam-packed with massive shrimp and smaller clams. The
seafood was perfectly cooked and bursting with the salinity of the sea, while
the tomatoes were bright and acidic and the black and green olives provided
earthy flavors. The pasta, house made with squid ink, was jet black and while
not fishy at all, underscored the oceanic notes of the dish.
Spaghetti all’ amatriciana is a simple Roman dish comprised
of a sauce made with tomatoes, onions, and bacon. I’ve made this sauce myself,
which is both hearty and light, as the tomato base tends to be rendered with
fresh tomatoes rather than a long-cooked, paste-enriched gravy. This was hands
down the best version of it I’ve ever tasted. The sweetness of the onions, the
saltiness of the pancetta, and the sweet/sharp flavor of fresh tomatoes all
mingled perfectly in the chunky sauce to bathe the al dente spaghetti in huge
flavor that hit every taste bud with a punch. I would order this dish time and
time again.
We just had to
segue straight into the dessert portion of our evening. Our two favorites were
the zabaglione, a creamy, cold ice-cream-like dish of custard flavored with
marsala wine and topped with raspberry sauce. The zabaglione was light in
texture but rich in flavor, and not too sweet – a perfect ending to a decadent
meal.
The panna cotta was also very light, but this one was topped
with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. We loved its silken texture and creamy
finish on the palate, and it wasn’t too sweet, either – just perfectly balanced
between milky and sugary without going overboard into toothache territory.
One of the most spectacular attributes about all our food at
Patrizia’s was the visual feast every single dish provided in addition to its
taste. The colors were vibrant and alive on each plate – this is no standard
red sauce joint. The other commendation was the atmosphere, which was almost
electric in feel, but still, somehow, relaxing. Many trendier, big city
restaurants have turned the lights way down and the music way up to achieve a
night club-esque feel in the name of ambiance, but here, it’s all about family.
The dining room was bright and open, and between the birthday celebrations
erupting every few minutes and the jovial disposition of every single member of
the wait staff who visited our table (there were at least five throughout the
meal), we felt welcome. There isn’t much hospitality left in the hospitality
business these days, but Patrizia’s, in Staten Island, is serving it up in
spades.