Risotteria

[Sandra Levine]

Has anyone else been here? It's a small restaurant on Bleecker Street, near Cones, that specializes in risotto. The menu proclaims, "No freezers, No cans, Everything is handmade."

In addition to the risotti, small pizzas with either tomato sauce or tapenade and various toppings are offered, as well as panini and salads. Salads are available small or large. The risotti are made using either baldo, carnaroli of vialone nano rice with ingredients chosen accordingly, e.g., sausage, beef, chicken lamb or pork with the carnaroli or fish shellfish and vegetables with the more delicate violone nano

Alan chose roasted Italian sausage and spinach (made with Carnaroli) and I had shrimpl, roasted garlic and green onion. Both risottos were well made, with al dente grains of rice and a generous quantity of other ingredients suspended in the creamy sauce. There was, indeed, no taste of commerical broth.

I had a mixed baby lettuce salad with asparagus, roasted tomato and mozzella and Alan had arugua with bermuda onion, oven dried tomato and mozzarella. My only complaint about the salad was that the balsamic vinaigrette was too sweet, but that is my own fault for ordering balsamic vinaigrette when I could have had chianti or fresh lemon vinaigrette, one of which I will try next time. There are 43 risotti listed on the menu.

Service was very accommodating. Our waiter offered to raise the lighting level when he saw me struggling to read the menu in the dark.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I actually happened to walk by the day they opened and I had lunch there.

I think it's a great place although they aren't really making real risotto there. But a perfect place for a casual lunch, especially by yourself. They allow BYO as well for something like $8.

[Fat Guy]

Eric Asimov had this to say about the place.

Plotnicki, when you say it's not real risotto, what do you mean?

[Sandra Levine]

I think it's a great place although they aren't really making real risotto there

What would you call it, then?

[Steve Plotnicki]

No from what I understand it's the same shortcut method that they use to make risotto in other places. It's not like they have all these guys on hand stirring it constantly to make it perfect.

[Sandra Levine]

A shortcut does not mean that it is not "real" risotto. This is a restaurant, not Mamma's kitchen.

[jaybee]

No from what I understand it's the same shortcut method that they use to make risotto in other places

Youi mean like the short cut method they use at Daniel's? Precooking the rice, say half way, drying it and then finishing it when ordered?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Well if you define "real" risotto as some guy stirring five cups of chicken stock into the rice in a steady motion, so what you end up with is a certain texture and richness to the rice, then one wouldn't call this real risotto. But you and I would recognize it as risotto since we are in the U.S. and not Milan. But don't take my comments in a way to turn you off the place. It's a great concept and the food is good, and especially good for takeout.

[Fat Guy]

Does anybody remember this little spat?

[jaybee]

I've had risotto in Milan and I make it at home, and I can make it taste as good as it does in Milan. Except I don't offer a view of Duomo and shopping.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Hey my info comes right from the owner of the place who explained it to me on opening day. The "not real" was his bit, not my comment. If he hadn't said that to me, I probably wouldn't have known the difference.

[Toby]

Thanks for reminding me of this place, Sandra. I haven't eaten there in some time, but I had (I think) the risotto with prosciutto and cheese and it was pretty good. Now that I can actually imagine cooler weather and even winter, it's a good place to keep in mind, especially lunch when shopping on Bleecker Street and neighborhood -- Faicco's (which carries a delicious line of inexpensive dried pasta called Di Nola and also has sausage casings), Florence Butcher, Ottomanelli's, Murray's cheese shop...

[Sandra Levine]

I've been making risotto for 30 years or so, long before it became popular here, according to the technique I learned at the side of a man whose Milanese grandmother taught him -- and I say what I ate at Risotteria was real risotto, even if they use the restaurant, rather than the home cooking, method.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Well if you buy the answer that it's all in the taste, rather than the definition being a function of the technique, fine. Some people (including the owner) seem to have a different definition. But let's not get hung up on definitions. The stuff there tastes pretty good. I'm surprised it didn't catch on to a greater extent because I know the owner had plans to open other branches around the city.

[Fat Guy]

Not that I'm a great businessman, but had I set up this restaurant I'd have used a different approach. I'd have gone very modern/techno, a mix of stainless and bright accent colors with long counters and stools. Basically an upscale fast-food concept for risotto; a larger-scale F&B focusing on risotto.

[jaybee]

I'm surprised it didn't catch on to a greater extent because I know the owner had plans to open other branches around the city.

Is the place not doing well? The review that Asimov gave it was very good. You and Sandra say the food's good. I wonder why it wouldn't do well? Is risotto a little to exotic or esoteric for mainstream Villagers? From the write up, it sounds like they provide take out and delivery as well as eat in.

[Sandra Levine]

We there Sunday night around 9:30. One table was available, which we took. The place was still full when we left. I wish now that I had paid more attention to the take-out operation. I hope it is succeeding, because I liked it.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I just think that risotto isn't all that popular to begin with. If people were flocking to eat risotto like they flock to eat pasta, I'm sure business would have been better regardless of design. Considering they are on the block that started the brick oven pizza craze (John's) and the cheap pasta place craze (Cucina Stagionale if my memory recalls) it is perfectly situated to catch on. But it didn't. And I think that says more about the underlying product then then whether they do a good or bad job of it.

[Suzanne F]

Unless I'm confusing "Risotteria" with "Rice," isn't this the place that uses only induction cooking? If you notice, there is no hood over the cooking area (down the wall to the left as you look in the front window, as I recall). Just a number of single-burner induction cooking surfaces sitting on top of a counter. Which would make the concept great for replication -- if you don't need to install a hood, you can put it in virtually anywhere.

If I'm remembering that correctly, then one could hardly say that Risotteria makes "real" risotto. As in Steve P's definition. But ... so what? As Steve said, we're in New York, not Milan. Is this any worse than the widespread mis-use of the venerable terms "confit" or "pesto?"

[Fat Guy]

Plotnicki, I think you may have too much faith in people's ability to judge an underlying product. There are plenty of examples of restaurants that serve nearly identical food (like just about every faux-brasserie in town) yet some are wildly successful while others crash and burn. This sort of simple-food place on a very hip block needs to build a certain image in order to catch on. There needs to be an appeal beyond just what is being served. People need to be made to feel that eating risotto as an everyday staple makes them like cool, modern Italians hanging around in Milan.

I agree that it hasn't caught on. That's not a judgment regarding the business at a particular location (though we went by there last week at around 9:00pm and the place was dead), but rather the infectiousness of the concept. This place is supposed to be a reproducible restaurant susceptible to expansion or franchising. What it is in reality is a generic trattoria-type place that happens to have a somewhat unique menu concept. That's not enough.

[Fat Guy]

Interestingly, when you put "Risotteria New York" into Google the first thing that comes up is a capsule review from Mamster's Web site:

http://www.mamster.net/food/restaurants/nyc2001.html

So maybe he can chime in with some supplemental info here.

Also, here's some good business-trends analysis of risotto, from the National Restaurant Association:

http://www.restaurant.org/rusa/magArticle....m?ArticleID=119

[Steve Plotnicki]

Fat Guy - You should know that my opinions and prejudices on topics like these have been formed by trying to sell people popular culture for the last 20 years. Selling them food, of which I've done a bit as well, isn't all that different. And if you ask anyone in any industry who sells people culture why people buy things, they will simply tell you that people either like it or they don't. For things like slick fixtures etc. to have a huge impact, the item has to be popular to begin with. I'm not sure risotto in this country has ever

reached a level of popularity where it could be propelled into the same category as pizza or pasta. My best guess as to why that is the case is because immigrants to America came from predominantly wheat growing nations and the starch in their meal was wheat and not rice. And if you just look at the Italian immigrantswho came to the U.S., they are predominantly from the south of Italy where pasta was king. I also think that risotto is labor intensive in a way that pasta isn't and that deters people from making it at home very often. I think paella suffers from the same prejudices that risotto suffers from. Because considering how easy it is to make, and considering how we Americans usually like those one dish meals, it never caught on here in a big way.

[Fat Guy]

Fair enough, but I think you have to ask what people are buying when they go to a restaurant.

(Edit: In other words, when people say they "like" a restaurant, are they saying they "like" the food? Or are they saying something else? I agree people buy what they like, but "like" is a term that requires further analysis.)

[Stone]

I think many people have never heard of risotto, and many people have preconceived notions of how rice should be cooked.

I rarely order risotto at restraurants. Although I've had some good ones, I find that most aren't. Usually the rice is very undercooked and mealy, and it sits in a watery "gruel" (I don't necessarilly mean that in a pejorative sense, but I find the dishes similar to rice gruel I found in Thailand).

[Steve Plotnicki]

Well it isn't like the food industry didn't try to promote risotto into being a big thing. And the audience for risotto grew but I don't think to the extent they hoped for. I think risotto has a snotty air to it. It's what those elite, blond haired, Northern Italians eat. It's not the same type of soul food that spaghetti and meatballs are. Which is where the problem lies if you ask me.

Personally, I think a good seafood risotto is one of the world's great creations. But I think most of the other risottos are boring. I find that they don't have enough flavor for my personal taste. Another risotto that I find much merit in is the Riso al Salto that they serve in Milan. It's leftover risotto Milanese that they fry in a pan with butter and grated cheese and serve it in pancake form. It is the personification of the phrase al dente and is packed with flavor.