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| - Come for the food. Come back for... the food.
Looks-wise it was even more hole in the wall than I expected. Food was nice, though I found both the veal piccata and the salad vinaigrette a little salty. The veal was tender and lovely, with just the right amount of crisping and sauce. Entrees come with a bit of ziti and marinara, which was great, and with the criticized iceberg-and-carrots salad--which I was fine with, since it was very fresh and had a nice light vinaigrette.
They give you a nice fresh loaf of bread, hot from the oven. They have excellent olive oil--I had the caprese and mopped up the extra with my bread. Nice service, far better than I would expect from a place with plastic glasses and vinyl tablecloths.
It looks sort of like someone opened a restaurant in that back room they weren't using, and it's very homey--but the food and the price? Just right. BYOB - the people who just came in have wine with them. And the woman running the place, Italian, knows many of her customers. It's a great atmosphere if you don't care about having candles and white linens.
Pasta fagioli IS excellent. An enjoyable dinner. I've had worse Italian in NYC, and paid a lot more, too.
I think my favorite aspect of the ambience is the TV above my head that's set on an Italian channel. Something about hearing the language really adds to it all. ;) And since I don't speak it and I'm not watching it, it isn't distracting at all.
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