Arthur Avenue

[mascarpone]

Does anyone have advice on Italian restaurants around Arthur Avenue in the Bronx?

Mascarpone

[anil]

Dominic's - Family style, No menu per say, Cash only, and closed Tuesdays. Their Pork Chops, or Sausages are excellent.

[Pan]

Welcome, mascarpone!

I'm sure you'll get some more good replies in this thread, but you also might want to look at search results of threads with "Arthur Avenue" in the title. Note that the first thread to come up is this one, and some of them may not answer your question but still might strike your interest.

[picaman]

Roberto's is pretty consistently amazing.

Jamie

[tautog]

I would second Roberto's. Dominic's is an experience, with pretty good old school food. Emilia's isn't half bad either. If you're ever in the area just to go shopping and need a quick bite, Cafe al Mercado in the market is better than you'd expect.

[mascarpone]

I went with my gitrlfriend to Dominick's @ 2335 Arthur Avenue, Bronx on Sunday. It was open at 1PM and, although it was busy, we immediately got a seat at a long communal table. We both skipped breakfast so we were hungry when we walked in. They brought bread that was fantastic--a meal in itself. When they came back for the first course order, I remarked to the waiter on how pleased I was with the bread. His reply was they got it fresh daily across the street at Madonia Bakery. He also commented that there was no seafood because the fish place next door was closed that day. What a food community!

We started with a huge Stuffed Artichoke. It came steaming hot and was stuffed with an herb/breadcrumb mixture that was amazing. I was even happier at this point than when eating the bread. Then we split the Pork Chops and a bowl of Penne in marinara sauce. The sauce was very good--very fresh tomatos with just the right balance of oil, and seasoning. The penne was done perfectly al dente. The Pork Chops were also served in Marinara or some other type of red sauce with fresh tomatoes. They really resembled miniature Pork Roasts as most pork chops I eat are rarely ever four inches thick. The pork meat was so tender that using the knife was less efficient than using a spoon. Phenomenal!! It was a very good meal, yet it was so heavy that I almost feel asleep as I made a beeline for the nearest pastry shop, De Lillo @606 East 187th, Bronx where I sipped a doppio machiato and my girlfriend had an espresso. The pastries looked good but after Dominick's all we could manage was the coffee. As a matter of fact, I even skipped dinner that evening.

The waiter was nice enough and the place was really an experience as there were many large men dining in groups of three or four and speaking Italian. I have to admit that I felt a bit uncomfortable without menues and a check. When I asked,"ll conto, per favore" the waiter announced that the whole bill came to $40 (including a large bottle of Pellegrino). I guess that is just the way it happens there.

There were jars of the sauce on sale at the door for $6.99, although I didn't buy any.

I live in Washington Heights, and it took me 60 Minutes door to door via the M100 bus to 207 and the Bx12 to Dominick's. As there are other restaurants and specialty shops that look interesting, I plan to go back soon. After all, it is closer to me than Little Italy, Chinatown, or the Lower Eastside.

Edited June 15, 2004 by mascarpone (log)

[mascarpone]

After visiting the Bronx Zoo we hit Roberto's @ 632 E. 186th Street (on Belmont). Altogether a different vibe than Dominick's. Dominick's is more a casual, local cafe/hangout while Roberto's is fancier and somewhat more expensive restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant at 5:30 PM and had to wait thirty minutes to be seated. After we ordered it took about thirty minutes for the main course to reach the table. In the meantime we ate fantastic bread (like Dominick's from the Madonia bakery) and olive oil (alla Roberto's) that were on the table. Even on Sunday evening Roberto's was extremely busy. Despite the wait, service was very professional.

She ordered the Fusilli Terracotta. This was a great pasta dish that had grilled eggplant among other ingredients. I had the Veal alla Chef--a thin slice of veal served with prosciutto, provolone, fresh spinach, and a sauce of garlic, butter and finely grated romano cheese. Both dishes were winners and we did not leave feeling as heavy as we had from Dominick's. These two main courses along with a glass of house red and a soda came to about forty bucks before tip.

Roberto's will be moving at the end of August to 603 Crescent Avenue.

[Jason Perlow]

Rachel and I had an excellent dinner last night at Roberto's new digs on Crescent Avenue.

We started off with a bucatini with a creamy zucchini sauce that featured slices of fried zucchini in it -- phenomenal. Then a special of small shrimps and scallops sauteed with garlic and a puree of broccoli rabe with cannelini beans over raddichio leaves -- this would almost be a Spanish or Portuguese dish had it not be for the cannelini and broccoli rabe, the garlic was very aggressive but it was wonderful.

Rachel had an osso bucco in a tomato-based sauce (huge portion) which she enjoyed and I had a really good veal scallopine dish.

Afterwards we went to Pompeii, next to Dominicks on Arthur Ave, for dessert and coffee, and a shot of Sambuca. The place has gone way downhill (and its changed owners and names more times than I can count). I wanted to go to to Arthur Avenue Cafe but it was closed.

[gaf]

Grandmotherless Bronx - New York City entry #5

When I was growing up in Manhattan, visiting the Bronx was a family matter. Yes, I would go to Yankee Stadium to sneak into box seats when the ushers weren’t looking. Yes, I went to high school in Riverdale at a rather chichi private school (since it was all-male, perhaps hee-hee is more apt).

But the reason to visit the Bronx was to see my grandmothers, one on the Grand Concourse and one on Jerome Avenue. My father, the son of my granny on Jerome, used to describe the attacks of the Italian kids across the street on the guiltless and guileless Jewish youth, circa 1927. The accounts provided a frisson of danger, even ten-year old Jews were at risk from childhood-fascists. Yet, while he narrated his strongly-felt childhood traumas, I suspected that there was more subtle class politics involved than his memories of innocence and attack suggested. (In Manhattan the strict Italian-Jewish culinary boundary was Canal Street; Little Italy to the north, Chinatown to the south).

Given the frequency with which we visited the Bronx, I am abashed to admit that not only did I never visit Arthur Avenue, but I never heard of it, despite its proximity to Fordham Road on which I spent so much time. Such was ethnic boundaries prior to immigration reform.

Eventually other ethnic transitions made their presence felt, and while we value the culinary treasures left in their wake, my grandmothers - and their yiddishe generation - left their urban redoubts to more comforting locales. Age multiplies fear.

This Sunday, after more than half a century, I visited Arthur Avenue, today less a neighborhood than a thematic shopping mall, unlike what it would have been in 1927 or even 1957.

While there are many restaurants on Arthur Avenue, Dominick’s has a special appeal. The restaurant has the feel of a church rec room with plastic paneling, long wooden tables, covered with long plastic tablecloths. Today was a particularly busy Sunday; along the street (on September 11th, no less) the neighbors were celebrating the 8th Annual Ferragosto festival, a lively, but lesser version of Little Italy’s feast of San Gennaro.

I was seated with two attractive women, returning to the old neighborhood, talking about family, friends, and, because this is New York, real estate. Each was surely blessed as grandma by a troop of fortunate moppets. One had close ties with Dominick’s staff (there was a fair amount of hugging of which I was not included), and so we received superior service on this busy afternoon.

Myra Alperson in her useful Nosh New York describes visiting Dominick’s, asking if they had anything “light” for lunch. She received the marvelous deadpan New York reply, “water.” She adds, seemingly without irony, “I went elsewhere.” I can imagine my mom doing the same. But what better advertisement could there be. Dominick’s does not have a menu, and one negotiates with the waiter as to what he thinks you might like and when the bill comes you learn what the traffic might bear. My large lunch (salad, veal, pasta, baked clams, and wine - no dessert was served) came to $41.00, but I have no idea if I received a discount thanks to my tablemates or whether this was more injustice to the Jews.

Dominick’s food is an experience, not a text. We began with bread as clean and thick as fresh Italian bread should be (with just a hint of salt). The salad was a mix of iceberg, romaine, tomato, olives, and onion in an excess of good olive oil and vinegar (not that northern chichi Balsamic stuff either). The pasta (a small rigatoni, whose name I don’t know, but not the elbows I had at grandma’s) was cooked as properly al dente in a bath of very tomato sauce. The veal parmigiano was layered with some fine mozzarella. If this calf was never fed milk, it gave its painful life for a happy diner. The bread coating on the clams was a bit heavy by downtown standards, but they were plump and juicy and the garlicky sauce could not have had more butter.

As I waddled out, I decided to make the walk that I never had as a teen, up the hill from Belmont. The walk wasn’t long - and today offers a range of restaurants inconceivable a half-century ago. Within about a quarter-hour I was at Fordham and the Grand Concourse. Fifteen minutes and fifty years to reach the old neighborhood.

Dominick’s

2335 Arthur Avenue

Bronx, New York

718-733-2807 (closed Tuesday)

[Pan]

What a great review!

Odd that they were celebrating Ferragosto in September, though! In Italy, Ferragosto is on August 15. Can anyone else shed light on this? And were any special foods or drinks available special for the celebration?

[TrishCT]

Had dinner Saturday night at Roberto's. A mistake I will never make again. We had planned on arriving around 5 p.m., but traffic was a nightmare and we got there right at 6 p.m. We were put in the book and I knew there were 7 tables ahead of us. We were hungry at 6 and starving by 8 while still standing outside, waiting. We were seated a little after 8 p.m. Our dinner took another two hours (unbelievably slow service) so we weren't out till 10 p.m.

Food was good, but four hours for dinner was too long and my dining companions weren't happy at all--they were exhausted.

Food- Buffalo mozz caprese, delicious. Rigatoni with lamb ragout, and pecorino -- rich homestyle sauce, fresh pasta, very good. Veal limone-- way oversalted as was a chicken dish we ordered. Roberto was too busy to even come by and say hello to us. That was kind of an ouch considering how long we had been waiting. But things are less personal when the place is packed.

And the noise factor? My husband said it was louder than a Monday night football bar serving nickel beers. Not a lot of fun. Avoid on a Saturday night.

[DutchMuse]

Anybody know if Roberto's allows BYOB?

[Jason Perlow]

Had dinner Saturday night at Roberto's.  A mistake I will never make again.  We had planned on arriving around 5 p.m., but traffic was a nightmare and we got there right at 6 p.m.  We were put in the book and I knew there were 7 tables ahead of us.  We were hungry at 6 and starving by 8  while still standing outside, waiting.  We were seated a little after 8 p.m.  Our dinner took another two hours (unbelievably slow service) so we weren't out till 10 p.m.

←

I did say get there early on another thread.... ah well.

Two hours at the table is not unusual for Robertos. It's not a quickie dinner kind of place.

[mascarpone]

Service was also particularly slow when I went to Roberto's. This is not a pre-theatre joint. At the time, it reminded me of a similar dining experience that I had in Florence, Italy. We waited over and hour for the table, but once we sat down, the table was ours for the night. After we ordered and were served I almost had to do a search and rescue mission for missing persons in order to locate our waiter to get the check. I did, however, have a great Florentine steak. I have since forgotten the name of the place. Very rustic decor, rough wooden tables with benches and no business cards or matchboxes.

[TrishCT]

At Roberto's, sadly the table ain't yours for the night. Lots of folks are milling about looking at you waiting for you to leave. I learned my lesson...no Roberto's if there is a list.

[markabauman]

We were on Arthur Avenue this past Saturday taking a guided tour from the Institute of Culinary Education on 23rd St. The author of "The Arthur Avenue Cookbook", Ann Volkwein, was supposed to have given the tour, but at the last minute, they had a substitute tour guide in the person of Giovanna La Marca. Sicilian born, Bronx-raised since age 10, she has written cookbooks and gives small food-oriented tours to Sicily. She was a wonderful guide to the neighborhood. When we inquired why Ferragosto was to be held on Sept. 11, rather than on the traditional Aug. 15, we were told a number of times that "everyone was on vacation in August and it wasn't a good time to have a festival". Strange explanation, but we heard it repeatedly.

By the way, does anyone know if Roberto's takes credit cards?

[Jason Perlow]

Yes, Roberto's takes credit cards. Its Dominick's that doesn't.

[mascarpone]

There are no checks at Dominick's either

[Jason Perlow]

There are no checks at Dominick's either

←

"A Chicken Parmigiana, a sphagetti and meatballs, and a lasagne, and 3 salads, eh, For you sir, 90 bucks!"

Another reason why I haven't been back to Dom's in at least four years.

[mascarpone]

I just don't understand why they do that

[Jason Perlow]

There's no rhyme or reason for it, they just do. If they don't like you, they rip you off. I was a faithful customer for at least ten years, and one night, Rachel, Jhlurie and I had dinner there, and ordered pretty much that exact same list of dishes above, a few sodas, no alcohol. A table next to us was eating like pigs and clearly was friendly with the waitstaff. We got screwed. Well, now I screw them back, at every opportunity that is afforded me.

You wanna peice of me, Dominick's? Do ya?

With other good restaurants on Arthur Avenue, such as Roberto's, Pasquale's Rigoletto and Umberto's, there's no point playing the Dominick's game, for what basically amounts to simple red sauce fare that any of those other places (well, except for perhaps Roberto's, which is a bit more sophisticated) can serve you.

[Pan]

[...]When we inquired why Ferragosto was to be held on Sept. 11, rather than on the traditional Aug. 15, we were told a number of times that "everyone was on vacation in August and it wasn't a good time to have a festival". Strange explanation, but we heard it repeatedly.[...]

←

Very strange indeed! In Italy, Ferragosto is totally synonymous with summer vacation!

[Jason Perlow]

After a 4 year plus self-imposed boycott of Dominick's (due to being raped on a bill a number of years ago) Rachel and I went for dinner there tonight, because she was in the mood for red sauce stuff and I couldn't figure out who in Jersey can make decent manicotti.

Antipasto salad, a large Lurisia sparkling water, Veal Parmigiana, and a plate of Manicotti: $46. Not rediculously expensive but not cheap either.

The antipasto salad was their trademark usual, it was enjoyed with the really good bread. Rachel liked her manicotti although it was not made with fresh crepes, they used pasta tubes. Good red sauce, although my veal parmigiana was just eh. Too much breading and the accompanying penne rigate pasta seemed to be both undercooked and overcooked at the same time -- pasty, like it was not boiled and held in water for a long time.

No need for us to go back. I'll stick with Umberto's and Robertos and Pasquale's.

[JohnL]

While I agree that Roberto's can be "as good as it gets" and Dominick's is just too much trouble (it is quirky and if you are not "from the neighborhood"....)

I always go back to Mario's-- it is to me just a really comfortable place to enjoy good food that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is overshadowed by its more glamorous or quirky neighbors.

[Jason Perlow]

I've yet to try Mario's. I've been told several times by others that I should go.