"With the original Barbuto, Jonathan Waxman nailed the formula for a great neighborhood restaurant: cool location, lack of pretension, seasonal pastas, killer chicken. It opened in 2004, pre-meatpacking-district mania, on a quiet West Village corner below the photographer Fabrizio Ferri’s Industria studio—it didn’t hurt that models and celebrities might drop in after sessions—with garage doors that rolled up in clement weather and a chef’s table in the tiny kitchen, open for all to see. What they saw was calm, genial Waxman himself, doing his thing at a double-decker oven created by the master oven-builder Nobile Attie, making the traditional cuisine of the Italian Riviera feel fresh." - Shauna Lyon
newyorker.com
