![]() 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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