Il Posto Accanto

"Let’s take a moment to set the record straight here. If any of you happen to show up at a restaurant and see Padma Lakshmi sitting at a table, it is your duty as a citizen to let us know. Hit us up on Twitter, send an email, or put up the Bat-signal. But please do something. Just as I was about to write this review of Il Posto Accanto, a close friend tells me he was there on our recommendation and saw the Indian queen of food and sexy dining at the bar with a friend. He just didn’t feel the need to tell us until two days later. How are we supposed to get a Friday Fives/start a family with her if our informants are sitting on info? I guess even though the intel is old, it does confirm that we have awesome taste. Il Posto Accanto is fantastic. There is a good chance you’ve eaten Italian food on this block before, and if you haven’t, it’s time you do. This one street is home to not only Il Posto Accanto and its sister restaurant, but also date night MVP Supper. But Il Posto Accanto is the one that nobody seems to talk about. It’s the smallest, quietest, and least flashy of the three Italian spots on the block, and that’s what makes it great. You can still roll in on a Friday night and get a seat because everyone else is trying to get a table at one of the other 20 Italian restaurants in a two block radius. What they don’t know is that Il Posto Accanto is home to some of the best meatballs and pastas in town, along with a great wine list and open air dining. We were honestly sort of torn about writing this place up, but you’re a loyal reader and deserve to have it in your repertoire. Just promise you won’t tell New Jersey. Food Rundown Meatballs Three to an order, swimming in a bowl of sauce. These might be the best meatballs in town. No matter what else you are ordering, get an order and split it. Scialatielli Fantastically simple pasta, this is a long, wide noodle in a basic tomato sauce, and it’s almost perfect. Cavatelli With Spicy Sausage Another favorite of the pastas, this is spicy and garlicky and will lay down a nice base for the gallon or so of wine you drink. Garganelli Botarga Don’t try this one if you’re not a fan of botarga, and we’re betting you aren’t. This is a nod to Il Posto Accanto’s authenticity - a traditional Sicilian pasta with fish roe. Definitely an acquired taste. Tortelloni Con Ragu The best things at Il Posto Accanto really are the simple pastas. These tortelloni are delicate but stand up nicely to the hearty meat sauce." - Chris Stang

"Wine bars tend to be quiet, dimly-lit spaces where you can avoid talking about which one of you should give up your apartment by asking the bartender to tell you more about the Chianti. Il Posto Accanto is such a place, but instead of serving only salads and a $26 charcuterie plate, they make very good Italian share plates and affordable pastas." - matt tervooren

"Picture, for a moment, the platonic ideal of an East Village Italian restaurant: brick walls, candles, pasta on the tables. Il Posto Accanto is the place you’re imagining. While there are certainly other East Village Italian places like it, Il Posto Accanto seems to get less attention, despite being better than almost all the others. For extra credit, they also have a really excellent wine list with bottles starting at $35 going all the way into the several hundreds." - katherine lewin, hillary reinsberg

"Il Posto Accanto, an East Village spot—some would call it a wine bar—is almost aggressively unstylish, right down to the plastic-sleeved menu printed unearthed from the depths of Microsoft Word's novelty options. But in today's world where everything is made to be photographed, uncool-ness is refreshing. This is a small plates, order-for-the-table kind of place, and there's a wide array of classic Italian dishes with a Sicilian slant. You could split one or two bites like curried salt cod fritters, a plate of cheese and salumi, or tuna crudo if you feel like nibbling on something over a glass of wine; or turn it into a full dinner with a couple of pastas like the tortelloni stuffed with oxtail.  Desserts are predictable but delicious. You can't go wrong with panna cotta, chocolate mousse, or tiramisu." - Andrea Whittle