Showing posts with label Sunday Sauce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday Sauce. Show all posts

Sunday, April 28, 2013

NEW YORK ITALIAN RED-SAUCE RESTAURANTS "Past & Present"




GINO'S
NOW DEFUNCT







INSIDE GINO'S DINING ROOM
With IT'S
FAMOUS ZEBRA WALLPAPER
GINO'S 
WAS On Lexington Avenue
Across From Bloomingdale's
Now SADLY DISEASED 
I MISS IT SO






Second Avenue Near East 11th Street
Still There
Not as Good As It used To Be
But It's Still There and It's Over 100 Years Old
And Definitely OLD SCHOOL RED SAUCE ITALIAN







JOHN'S
SINCE 1908
And STILL GOING STRONG
Above and Below













ROCCO'S
In BETTER DAYS
NOW DECEASED
CARBONE IS THERE NOW







THE FAMOUS
ROCCO
NEON SIGN




The FAMED ROCCO SIGN
SUPERIMPOSED With CARBONE






CARBONE
In THE FORMER ROCCO SPACE
HOPING To BECOME 
A CLASSIC OLD SCHOOL
ITALIAN RED SAUCE JOINT
BUT THE PRICES ARE PROHIBITIVE
"VERY EXPENSIVE"
AND NOT IN-LINE
WITH WHAT AN OLD SCHOOL
ITALIAN RED SAUCE RESTAURANT
IS And SHOULD BE
THAT IS
A WELCOMING CASUAL RESTAURANT
THAT HAS A WARM ATMOSPHERE 
AND TASTY ITALIAN and ITALIAN-AMERICAN FOOD
At FAIR MODERATE PRICES
THE FOOD IS QUITE GOOD
AS IS THE AMBIANCE
AS FOR THE PRICES???
YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD
QUITE FAR FROM MODERATE
VERY EXPENSIVE !!!

IS CARBONE CLASIC RED SAUCE?
The PRICES AREN'T
THAT'S BEEN ESTABLISHED
IF IT WILL BE A CLASSIC
TIME WILL TELL !!!





La TAVOLA IS NEW YORK ITALIAN RED SAUCE 
AND ALL








BAR at GINO'S



GAY TALESE on GINO'S,  THE NEW YORKER, May 31, 2010



BASTA !  
by Gay Talese


An Italian restaurant called Gino, which opened in 1945 on Lexington Avenue near Sixty-first Street, has been known primarily for its moderate prices, its tomato-red wallpaper printed with three hundred and fourteen leaping zebras, and its determinedly uncreative chefs, whose regular customers are so amiably resigned to the kitchen’s limited and unchanging cuisine that it has never been necessary for these customers to consult the menu.
All the items on the menu appear on a single plastic-covered page and were handwritten in ink sixty-five years ago by the restaurant’s founder, Gino Circiello, a dapper and debonair trendsetter in 1945 who thereafter ignored all trends. Even a year after his death at eighty-nine, in 2001, when the restaurant was described in the Zagat Survey as “frozen in the 40’s,” the regulars liked to boast that, at Gino’s, nothing was new: within the zebra-covered walls of this place everything remained the same, including the fact that a stripe was missing from the rumps of half the zebras—a mistake made by the original designer which Mr. Gino, a superstitious Italian of Neapolitan origin, chose not to correct, because to do so, he feared, might bring him bad luck.
So the restaurant’s décor as arranged at mid-twentieth century extended into the twenty-first: the same twenty-seven wooden tables and seventy-four chairs, the same small kitchen (ventilation provided by a half-opened skylight). And, week after week, the same daily specials: on Mondays it was osso buco, on Tuesdays it was nothing special, on Wednesdays it was lamb shank, on Thursdays it was veal Genovese, on Fridays it was fish soup, on Saturdays it was the same as Wednesdays (lamb shank), and on Sundays it was lasagna.
Gino’s most faithful customers, creatures of habit, feasted on consistency and the devoted attention of a single waiter, who (as one of nine waiters sharing the afternoon and evening shifts) oversaw each of his assigned tables for the duration of the meal. In the interest of controlling the overhead, Mr. Gino regarded busboys as an unnecessary expense, and he felt similarly about floral decorations. While the cost of the fresh flowers at La Grenouille is three thousand dollars a week, the plastic flowers at Gino’s—tucked into a half-dozen pearlescent plaster cornucopias that hang from the walls between the zebras—cost six hundred dollars a year.
The responsibility for purchasing these artificial flowers fell to one of the restaurant’s two current owners, a Neapolitan of sixty-nine named Michele Miele, who is also the chef. He buys the flowers at a Wal-Mart near his home in Sullivan County, and he washes them in the restaurant’s kitchen three times a year. Right now, the cornucopias are filled with spring flowers—plastic daisies, daffodils, tulips, lilies—and during the holidays he replaces them with chrysanthemums.
But there will be no chrysanthemums at Gino’s this Christmas and no more lamb-shank specials on Saturdays. Mr. Miele and his seventy-year-old partner, a fellow-Neapolitan named Salvatore Doria—who came to Gino’s as a waiter in 1974, after a decade at Barbetta, on West Forty-sixth Street—revealed last week that, owing to an eight-thousand-dollar-per-month increase that would drive the rent to more than thirty thousand dollars, plus the health-care costs sought by its employees’ union, the restaurant will close after Saturday night’s dinner on May 29th.
The tenant who said he will replace Gino’s at 780 Lexington is a Beverly Hills bakery entrepreneur named Charles Nelson, who, with his wife, Candace, owns and operates Sprinkles Cupcakes shops not only in California but also in Texas and Arizona. Gino’s will vacate the premises in mid-June; Doria says that he plans to retire, and Miele says that he would like to open another restaurant nearby if he can find a backer—a big if in this economy, he concedes, given that he has already failed to attract new partners to confront the rising costs of operating Gino’s.
Meanwhile, Miele has abandoned his chores in the kitchen to his subordinates and has taken to sitting in the dining room exchanging greetings and condolences with regular customers, who, having got the word, are now coming in almost every day in anticipation of the time when there will not be a menu for them to ignore. In the crowd recently were the architect I. M. Pei and his wife, Eileen, who have been eating at Gino’s for sixty years. “Oh, I’m so sorry this is ending,” Miele said. “But we tried to listen to Mr. Gino, who told us, ‘Take care of the customer, don’t change anything, and Gino will never die.’ ” Doria added, “Yes, we used to say, ‘The world changes, but nothing changes at Gino.’ ” 








Sunday, March 10, 2013

ITALIAN IN GREENWICH VILLAGE






ITALIAN IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

Restaurants, Caffes, Pastry Shops, Pork Stores, Pizzerias

THE BEST of NEW YORK ITALIAN FOOD 
IS IN "GREENWICH VILLAGE"

MAP of Greenwich Village Italian

1)    Da Silvano
2)    John's Pizzeria
3)    Raffetto's Pasta
4)    Porto Rico Coffee   
5)    Caffe Reggio
6)    Bar Pitti
7)    Carbone
8)    Joe's Dairy ... Fresh Made "Mozzarella"  
9)    Minetta Tavern .. "Yes It's Italian" Born Italian ...
10)  Rocco's Italian Pastries
11)  Faicco's Pork Store & Italian Specialties
12)  Florence Prime Meats  "INVENTED THE NEWPORT STEAK" 


















Thursday, October 18, 2012

SO You Want to "MAKE SUNDAY SAUCE"



So You WANT to Make "SUNDAY SAUCE" ?
Well a Great New Book on Just That Hit the Market today. SUNDAY SAUCE "SAUSAGE MEATBALLS & PASTA FAZOOL"  was Released on Amzaon KINDLE today and is Available for KINDLE iPhone iPad and all Androdi Devices and for the rest of October is Available at the SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY Price of Jusr $2.99 ... This Book is Awesome, and is sure to Please its ITALIAN-AMERICAN Following of Author DANIEL ZWICKE as well as anyone Interested in the Great Subject of Italian-America and ITALIAN FOOD .. And is there possibly anyone out there who isn't? A few i guess but not many.

SUNDAY SAUCE "Sausage Meatballs & Fazool" is Filled with wonderful Stories and recipes of "SUNDAY SAUCE" MEATBALLS "ITALIAN GRAVY" Sausage & Peppers "MEATBALL PARM SANDWICHES" PASTA FAZOOL and more .. All the most important Italian-American Favorites are in Sunday Sauce and its sure to Please. Looks Like SUNDAY SAUCE - Sausage Meatballs & Fazool is going to prove to be the "Hot Food Read of Autumn 2012 ... We at NyFoodie agree! 






Anthony Ragusa


Friday, September 14, 2012

La TAVOLA "A MUST READ"


 As I've said and written before, Daniel makes probably the finest Bolognese Sauce in the country, among other dishes. Daniel besides creating America's first ever Venetian Wine Bar, has now created and given America another great wonder, in his marvelous new book "La Tavola" Italian-American New Yorkers Adventures of The Table, a wonderful book with wondrous stories of Sunday Sauce, Meatball Parms, The Feast of The 7 Fish and much more. La Tavola is one of the finest books ever written on Italian-American Food and Cuisine, with some excellent wine info and stories as well.
    This book take the read on a journey through the Italian-American culinary world; the Food, Cooking, people, and time spent at the table with wonderful stories of all the great dishes, rituals, and the realm of Italian America.
    This book is a "Must Read" for anyone interested in Italian food and food in general.





Robert Roma

article from JOURNAL of ITALIAN FOOD WINE and TRAVEL

Thursday, February 16, 2012

ITALIAN AMERICAN ... WHAT IS IT?


There has long been a debate, fights, and Mud-Slinging in regards to Italian and Italian-American
food served in restaurants in New York and the rest of the U.S.. Culinary Snobs, people who "Think" they know what they are talking about and what not. I can set the record straight, being an
 Italian-American who has been eating Italian and Italian-American food for more than forty years, who has been professional Chef and someone who has eaten all over Italy on some 15 trips to the great peninsular. In addition to studying Italian Food in Italy for some 25 years, I am constantly reading all sorts of articles , cookbooks, and historical facts on this subject, in addition to being one of the countries foremost authorities on Italian Wine.
   Anyway, let me tell you. I myself was once a uninformed Food Snob who badmouthed and was slightly disdainful of unauthentic Italian food being served in restaurants all over the city. That's just in restaurants. Of course I Loved eating Sunday Sauce, Eggplant Parmigiano, and Meatballs that my aunts made at our frequent family get together s. And on the occasions that we weren't at one of the family's homes but in an Italian restaurant in Lodi or Garfield, I usually ordered Chicken  or Veal Parmigiano. Yes I loved it, but these dishes, for me at the time (1985-1993) had their place, and it was not in the kitchen or on the plates of any serious Italian Restaurant in Manhattan.
   Eventually as I learned more of the history of food in New York, Italy, and the World, I realized that there was actually a real true Italian-American Cuisine and that it was completely valid.
  Do you realize that if you think there is not a true valid Italian-American Cuisine, then you also must concede that there is No True French Cuisine, because the origins of what we now know as French food and Cuisine is really Italian. Yes, I said Italian. For the food and cuisine of French was quite primitive and did not begin to form into what we now know as French Food and French Cuisine until Caterina Medici of the Noble Florentine Family of the Medici married the King of France and brought her Florentine Chefs with her to the French Court way back in the 15th Century. So there. Many dishes which most people think of as French in origin, like Duck ala Orange, Bechamel, and others, are really Italian. "So there!"
   Anyway, back to Italian-American food. Food and cuisines are constantly changing and evolving. This is how Florentine Chefs of Italy, went to France with the newly crowned French Queen who was of the Italian Peninsular in one Katherine Medici  and taught the French how to cook. Thus Italians immigrating to the United States in the early 20th Century brought their ingredients and techniques from mother Italy to cook the dishes from their homeland, with some modifications do to financial issues (being poor) and the unavailability of certain ingredients, and started forming what would one day be known as Italian-American  food (Cuisine).




"to be Continued"


Daniel Bellino Zwicke









FRANK SINATRA
ONE of THE GREATEST
ITALIAN AMERICAN'S of ALL

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

ITALIAN AMERICAN

WHAT is Italian ... ITALIAN-AMERICAN




    There has long been a debate, fights, and Mud-Slinging in regards to Italian and Italian-American
food served in restaurants in New York and the rest of the U.S.. Culinary Snobs, people who "Think" they know what they are talking about and what not. I can set the record straight, being an
 Italian-American who has been eating Italian and Italian-American food for more than forty years, who has been professional Chef and someone who has eaten all over Italy on some 15 trips to the great peninsular. In addition to studying Italian Food in Italy for some 25 years, I am constantly reading all sorts of articles , cookbooks, and historical facts on this subject, in addition to being one of the countries foremost authorities on Italian Wine.
   Anyway, let me tell you. I myself was once a uninformed Food Snob who badmouthed and was slightly disdainful of unauthentic Italian food being served in restaurants all over the city. That's just in restaurants. Of course I Loved eating Sunday Sauce, Eggplant Parmigiano, and Meatballs that my aunts made at our frequent family get together s. And on the occasions that we weren't at one of the family's homes but in an Italian restaurant in Lodi or Garfield, I usually ordered Chicken  or Veal Parmigiano. Yes I loved it, but these dishes, for me at the time (1985-1993) had their place, and it was not in the kitchen or on the plates of any serious Italian Restaurant in Manhattan.
   Eventually as I learned more of the history of food in New York, Italy, and the World, I realized that there was actually a real true Italian-American Cuisine and that it was completely valid.
  Do you realize that if you think there is not a true valid Italian-American Cuisine, then you also must concede that there is No True French Cuisine, because the origins of what we now know as French food and Cuisine is really Italian. Yes, I said Italian. For the food and cuisine of French was quite primitive and did not begin to form into what we now know as French Food and French Cuisine until Caterina Medici of the Noble Florentine Family of the Medici married the King of France and brought her Florentine Chefs with her to the French Court way back in the 15th Century. So there. Many dishes which most people think of as French in origin, like Duck ala Orange, Bechamel, and others, are really Italian. "So there!"
   Anyway, back to Italian-American food. Food and cuisines are constantly changing and evolving. This is how Florentine Chefs of Italy, went to France with the newly crowned French Queen who was of the Italian Peninsular in one Katherine Medici  and taught the French how to cook. Thus Italians immigrating to the United States in the early 20th Century brought their ingredients and techniques from mother Italy to cook the dishes from their homeland, with some modifications do to financial issues (being poor) and the unavailability of certain ingredients, and started forming what would one day be known as Italian-American  food (Cuisine).


"to be Continued"


by Daniel Bellino Zwicke

Monday, August 11, 2008

SUNDAY SAUCE ....... Daniel Bellino Zwicke




SUNDAY SAUCE
Meatballs

and the "Meatball Parm Sandwich" you make on
Monday after the Sunday you make the sauce.








SUNDAY SAUCE


One of the great traditions of the Italian American enclave in the U.S. is the ritual of Sunday afternoon when the entire family gets together for Mama’s or Nona’s famed “Sunday Sauce.” What is it? Well there are a number of variations on the theme. Most Sunday Sauce’s are made with Italian Sausage, Braciola, and Meatballs. Some people make theirs with pork ribs, beef neck, and possibly chicken thighs and backs. These meats are slowly simmered for several hours with tomato, minced onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. I generally like to make my Sunday Sauce with sausage, meatballs, and pork ribs. Other times I’ll make it with sausage, ribs, and braciola. An old tradition in some families is that mother or grandma would start the sauce early on a Sunday morning, get it simmering away for a couple hours on top of the stove, then put it in the oven for a couple hours while everyone goes to church, the sauce slowly simmers and when you get back home, the sauce is ready.
The Sunday Sauce that my mother would make was with sausage, meatballs and beef braciola. My memories are vivid watching my mother stuffing the braciola with garlic,
parsley, Pecorino, and pignoli nuts, then sewing up the bundles with a needle and thread so they would hold together while simmering in the gravy (many families all over the New York and around the country simply call Sunday Sauce “Gravy”). Another fond memory was helping my mother roll and shape the meatballs.
As for me, my Sunday Sauce will vary depending on my mood. One thing I love to do when making the sauce is the addition of pork spare ribs, which not to many people use, I love it.
Whenever people eat my sauce, they go nuts for the ribs and some are surprised cause they might never have had them in a sauce before. They didn’t know that you could use pork spareribs. The ribs are traditional with some but not everybody. It is quite a shame for those who don’t add the ribs because they give the sauce some wonderful flavor and they are incredibly delicious to eat after braising in the sauce for a couple of hours. Whenever I make the sauce and I’m dishing it out to friends and family, I always make sure that I have my fare share of the ribs. Pork ribs cooked in this manner, simmering in the sauce are oh so succulent and tasty. They are far beyond compare. “They are Out-of-this-World!!!” The friends, one-by-one, go nuts for them. “Yes they are most than tasty!”
And what to serve with the Sunday Sauce you ask? It should be a short macaroni; rigatoni, ziti, or gnocchi are best.
The rituals of cooking, serving, and eating Sunday Sauce is a time honored one. It is a beautiful thing. If you mention the term Sunday Sauce to any number of millions of Italian-Americans, the wheels start turning in their heads. Thoughts of how tasty it is, all the different components; the meatballs, sausages, braciola, (maybe ribs, beef or pork neck), the pasta, and the gravy itself.
They think about sitting at the table with friends and or family, people they love. They think about the antipasti that will start the meal and about some good Italian Wine, maybe a nice Chianti. They think about the warmth in the air, loved ones, Dino, Sinatra, and of course, the
Sunday Sauce itself. “It’s a beautiful thing!!!” If you’ve never done it, “Try it!” If you haven’t cooked one for some time, plan a get-together soon. “Sunday Sauce, it brings people together,” in a most delightful way.


Sunday, June 22, 2008

SUNDAY SAUCE excerpted from DANIEL BELLINO ZWICKE'S upcoming new book "LA TAVOLA"

SUNDAY SAUCE


One of the great traditions of the Italian American enclave in the U.S. is the ritual of Sunday afternoon when the entire family gets together for Mama’s or Nona’s famed “Sunday Sauce.” What is it? Well there are a number of variations on the theme. Most Sunday Sauce’s are made with Italian Sausage, braciole, and meatballs. Some people make theirs with pork ribs, beef neck, and possibly with chicken. These meats are slowly simmered for several hours with tomato, and minced onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. I generally like to make my Sunday Sauce with sausage, meatballs, and pork ribs. Other times I’ll make it with sausage, ribs, and braciole. An old tradition in some families is that mother or grandma would start the sauce early on a Sunday morning, get it simmering away for a couple hours on top of the stove, then put it in the oven for a couple hours while everyone goes to church, the sauce slowly simmers on the back of the stove. When you get back home, the sauce would be ready.
The Sunday Sauce that my mother would make was with sausage, meatballs and beef braciole. My memories are vivid watching my mother stuffing the braciole with garlic,
parsley, Pecorino, and pignoli nuts, then sewing up the bundles with a needle and thread so they would hold together while simmering in the gravy (many families all over the New York and around the country simply call Sunday Sauce “Gravy”). Another fond memory was helping my mother roll and shape the meatballs.
As for me, my Sunday Sauce will vary depending on my mood. One thing I love to do when making the sauce is the addition of pork spare ribs, which not everyone uses. Whenever people eat my sauce, they go nuts for the ribs and some are surprised cause they might never have had them in a sauce before. They didn’t know that you could use pork spareribs. The ribs are traditional with some but not everybody. It is quite a shame for those who don’t add the ribs because they give the sauce some wonderful flavor and they are incrediably delicious to eat after braising in the sauce for a couple of hours. Whenever I make the sauce and I’m dishing it out to friends and family, I always make sure that I have my fare share of the ribs. Pork ribs cooked in this manner, simmering in the sauce are oh so succulent and tasty. They are far beyond compare. “They are Out-of-this-World!!!” The friends, one-by-one, go nuts for them. “Yes they are most than tasty!”
And what to serve with the Sunday Sauce you ask? It should be a short macaroni; rigatoni, ziti, or gnocchi are best.
The rituals of cooking, serving, and eating Sunday Sauce is a time honored one. It is a beautiful thing. If you mention the term Sunday Sauce to any number of millions of Italian-Americans, the wheels start tuning in their heads. Thoughts of how tasty it is, all the different componets; the meatballs, sausages, braciole, (maybe ribs or tne neck), the pasta, and the gravy itself. The think about sitting at the table with friends and or family, people they love. They think about the antipasti that will start the meal and about some good Italian wine, maybe a nice Chianti. They think about the warmth in the air, loved ones, Dino, Sinatra, the Sunday Sauce. “It’s a beautiful thing!!!” If you’ve never done it, “Try it!” If you haven’t cooked one for some time, plan a get-together soon. “Sunday Sauce, it brings people together,” in a most delightful way.


SUNDAY SAUCE is excerpted from Daniel Bellino Zwicke's upcoming new book "LA TAVOLA"
Italian-American New York's Adventures of the Table; Sunday Sauce, Meatballs, Sausage & Peppers, Cannoli, Espresso, Pork Stores and ....

They Eat, they COOK, they laugh, they cry, but most of all their lives are filled with wonderful times around the table as only Italians can do. They do it well.