Audio By Carbonatix
Driving past you’d never notice this bar/restaurant in the Argentine enclave around 71st Street and Normandy Drive; indeed the first three times I cruised by deliberately looking, I missed it. But I wasn’t surprised to think the eight-month-old spot had already folded. I’d become aware of Il Romanaccio Caffe through a menu posted on the Internet, and with prices so unbelievable ($4.75 for penne with goat cheese, spinach, almonds, and sun-dried tomatoes; $6.95 for veal Milanese) I couldn’t see how the owners could afford to rent even a breadbox. Romanaccio is tiny, but bigger than a breadbox.
Prices are not actually quite as miraculous as the above. The Net menu was for lunch, first off, and the cited pasta no longer exists; the cheapest pasta available, capellini with tomatoes and basil, is now $6.50 at lunch, $7.50 at dinner. And while the cited veal is still available midday for the above price, the least expensive carni course at dinner, vitello alla Francese, is $9.95. But what a dish! A single portion split with a friend (in the kitchen, making the sharing much more elegant) was plenty enough for two, and the cutlet was more tender and juicy than most cuts of veal I’ve had at twice the price. The cutlet’s coating was a light egg batter, not the inauthentic thick breading that all too often comes on a Francese; the white wine sauce sparkled with just enough, but not too much, lemon. The meat came flanked by both al dente penne with a nicely spiced, fresh tomato sauce and flavorful fried potato squares, definite starch overload. The pasta plus a small green salad would’ve been preferable in terms of balance. But both complex carbs were undeniably tasty.
Additional pasta wasn’t necessary, but ravioli ai porcini, delicate housemade squares with fresh spinach/ricotta stuffing and an earthy cream sauce redolent with the full flavor of genuine porcinis plus shallots, were so good that sharing an $8.95 order of almost a dozen ravioli was a darned good idea. And a divided order of Romanaccio’s signature salad, containing the same appealing ingredients as the nonexistent Net penne, was so generous we wondered if our server hadn’t mistakenly brought two salads. But the two packed plates were indeed just one $5.50 salad, split.
For dessert a chocolate soufflé turned out to actually be closer to a molten-centered warm fudge cake, definitely more than soufflé-dense. But compared with most “death-by-chocolate” bombs, the crusty disk was decently dark, nonsticky, and not oversweet. Vanilla ice cream on the side tempered the intensity and, again, made the item enough food that one $5.25 order was plenty for two and a perfect finish to the meal. Or it would have been a perfect finish, had we not sat for almost another hour finishing up our wine. Though I don’t usually drink during review meals, my abstinence is strictly for budgetary rather than puritan reasons — and with a whole bottle of healthful house red priced at $12.50, budget was hardly a concern. Quality was, since it’s not easy to find even good vinegar at that price, but the wine turned out to be a pleasant potion with a fair amount of body, really quite smooth — not at all harsh, definitely not vinegar.
Although my friend and I lingered long enough to wear out our welcome at most restaurants, neither our server (who was from Venezuela but spoke excellent English) nor the two other women who seemed to run the place rushed us a bit. Consequently, we resolved to rush back, soon. Tasty, cheap, and very friendly, Romanaccio really is just what a person wants from a neighborhood joint.
