Posted on March 6, 2007 - by Enoteca

Turning Tables Food Blog

Notes on Enoteca Maria (Fresh and Fabulous)
Posted by Pamela Silvestri/SI Live

My fingers can’t type fast enough with the excitement over Enoteca Maria.

This is a wonderful addition to Staten Island and an ideal spot on the North Shore. Hooray for the borough! We are very lucky to have a spot like this. If you’ve been to Italy or highly regard good, clean, simple Italian food, you’ll totally love what this kitchen turns out.

We have sampled Enoteca Maria’s brief menu at lunch. The offerings change daily but I’ll tell you about our experience today. Now, remember, the restaurant has only been open for less than a week. That being said, Enoteca Maria is certainly off to an excellent start.

Note also Enoteca Maria should receive their liquor license momentarily and, in the meantime, it is NOT BYOB. It is a very small restaurant open only for lunch on weekdays. This is probably an ideal situation since it takes a lot to get the food part of an eatery launched and they’ll probably be the better for it in the long run. Also, there’s a tad bit of roughness about the decor (looks like they’re putting finishing touches in the dining room after all the construction, understandable) and they’re still getting inventory into the space (perfectly acceptable to me at this stage in the game).

ANYWAY, hospitality was excellent. Young, soft-spoken Italian women are simply delightful servers. After placing your order, a woman will shuttle a pale blue colored, china platter to the table carrying three room temp relish dishes — today’s little tastes: caponata; Gaeta olives with fresh corn kernels, fennel dices and carrot discs; freshly roasted red pepper slivers with sautéed onion and pignoli nuts — presented with squares of focaccia. (The focaccia baking is that smell that smacks you in the face when you enter, by the way).

The cooks—who obviously take a lot of pride in their food—will come out to check on their nicely crafted food. We met two women today: One from Rome, the other from Sicily.

I don’t want to spoil the surprises at this place but, briefly:
Vegetable minestrone had a delicate layering of flavor and perfectly firm farro (!!!) served with freshly grated pamesan cheese in a square ramekin (!!!) It was $6 for a generous bowl.

Insalada Verde was just ehh, with crude chops of romaine, pale tomato wedges, black raisins and a battonet of carrots. Really good olive oil-based dressing, though. $5.

On AWESOME, crisp, sexy, warm (did I say awesome?) bread, the following:
Panini con salmone with lemon, oil and smidgeon of vinegar in a ramekin for dipping. Smoked salmon came on the warmed bread with shreds of iceberg. Heat from the bread cooked the salmon a bit, but overall a good sandwich. $8

Panini con Arugula and Bresaula with a pile of good quality, thin slices of bresaula and a dipping sauce of olive oil dotted with vinegar. $8

AND THE BEST DISH OF THE DAY……
Crostini topped with melted mozzarella cheese spread with anchovy butter!!! 
Ahhhh, simple and absolutely fabulous but a little pricey at $8.

Not sampled but definitely eyeballed for another time if offered:
Trippa alla Romana — $10.
Pennette con Funghi and Speck (Speck!!! Speck!!! They’re serving speck!) Possibly underpriced at $10. We’ll see.