![]() The accompanying mashed potatoes were alluringly dosed with truffle oil, and the whole production would have been perfect if not for a slight excess of oil in the winy brown sauce. in South Amboy, and it had flavor to match its heft. Like all the meats here, this one came from the reliable J. On one of our visits, a monster veal chop topped the charts at $38.95. Some of those prices are found not on the regular menu but on a list of specials that require prodigious feats of memory by diners and servers alike. They have created a foursquare, masculine bill of fare that needs to be executed a bit more consistently to be worthy of its surroundings and its financial-district prices. Cetrulo imported Scalini's veteran sous-chef, Angelo Stella. For Porto Leggero's debut, last summer, Mr. The guiding genius here is none other than Michael Cetrulo, the ruler of a small restaurant empire whose crown jewel is the revered Scalini Fedeli in Chatham. Between all that and the restaurant's high-concept décor (exposed bricks, iron scrollwork, ranks of chandeliers, a mirrored bar that resembles a huge stained-glass window), the net effect is almost surreal: Medieval Times meets Maurice Sendak's "In the Night Kitchen." Every 10 minutes or so the retro-modern trolleys of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line glide by. Through the restaurant's spectacular floor-to-ceiling windows you look out on still more office towers, their lighted windows staring blankly back at you. It's just incongruous - especially at night, when the Harborside complex is nearly deserted. ![]() ![]() Seated in its lushly padded lounge or on one of its tall banquettes, eating bountiful portions of high-end Italian food, you have to strain for any sense of place at all. This 110-seat restaurant inhabits a soaring, wood-beamed atrium on the ground floor of the 34-story Harborside Plaza 5, one of many steel-and-glass office towers built atop the wreckage of the brawny shipping-and-warehouse industry that flourished on Jersey City's docks in first half of the 20th century. JERSEY CITY - "DINERS of a certain age," says a note on Porto Leggero's first-rate Web site, "will surely need to be reminded that this is Jersey City."
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