PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

Star chef Jonathan Waxman returned to New York after 12 years away to helm the quietly elegant Washington Park (now defunct) but ended up cooking in an open kitchen in the looser, more casual environs of this West Village trattoria. The food is fresh and solid, and many of the best dishes are prepared in the blazing wood-fired oven. Start with salt cod cakes and baby greens; a good pasta choice is the Genovese-style penne rigate and pesto with haricots verts. The space has a sunny feel and gets cooking in the warm weather, when the garage-style doors are folded up and the alfresco space takes on a party atmosphere.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's New York City 2008, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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