Archive for the ‘News and Press’ Category

Posted on October 28, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

NYC Nosh Review

Grandmothers United: Enoteca Maria
by Hungryman
October 28, 2007

Six Italian grandmothers of St. George, Staten Island have got this whole restaurant business all figured out. By taking turns at the stovetop, each nonna gets to rule the kitchen one day each week, and no one has to work more than a few weekly lunch or dinner shifts. Everyone gets a chance to cook and nobody collapses, exhausted in the gnocchi–it is a win-win arrangement. But really, it’s the lucky residents of St. George who are perhaps the most fortunate, as they get a glimpse into regional home cooking from a different part of Italy nearly every night of the week. As should already be clear, this is not your typical Italian restaurant: this is a place where meals are punctuated by frequent appearances from a well-proportioned older Italian woman who, in halting English, inquires at every table whether everything is “bene.” And the only real response is: “Si.”

Read the rest of the review on NYC Nosh.

Posted on August 2, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

Prodigal Borough Review

I Know Longer Go To Manhattan To Eat. I Go To Enoteca Maria
by Uwe Kristen
August 2, 2007

Every Wednesday morning Teresa drives from Staten Island to Brooklyn, to an old warehouse beknownst only to her and a handful of other adepts. The men in the building know her. Without wasting many words they load a heavy 100-lb bag on her pick-up truck. Then she drives back to Staten Island and parks the truck in front of the Enoteca Maria on Hyatt St.

In 2006 Denise and Joe, the owners of the enoteca, started placing ads in Italian-language newspapers of the New York City area, looking for Italian women with a passion for traditional Italian cooking. They were not looking for credentials from culinary institutes but for regional recipes that had been passed down through generations. After several months of test cookings they finally hired Caterina, Teresa, Nina, Patrizia and Argentina – and opened Enoteca Maria in February 2007.

The five women, who come from different regions in Italy, cook on alternating days. Thus the menu changes daily. Even the lunch menu differs from the dinner menu each day. The focaccia and pastries are made from scratch and baked fresh daily in the restaurant, a detail Denise insisted upon. After several visits to Enoteca Maria I am particularly impressed by the consistent excellent quality of the food, be it the rich Baccala, the wonderfully tender organ meats or the subtle bacon-infused risotto, which is cooked in small batches in order to retain its bite. Enoteca Maria now also offers a very interesting selection of artisanal cheeses imported from Italy.

The wine list offers almost 40 different wines, thoughtfully selected from different regions in Italy. Most of the wines are from small producers with a focus on traditional winemaking. Every wine on the list is also sold by the glass, a fine opportunity to try something new without having to order a whole bottle. And Joe takes it upon himself to ensure that all wines are served the way they should be. He slowly pours the wine into large goblets, allowing the wine to fully unfold their aromas. He slightly chills his red wines before serving them, a small but important detail since red wine all too often is served too warm. A decanter is always at hand for the likes of Barolo and other wines with a firm structure, that need to breathe for a while in order to show their full complexity. Enoteca Maria also offers a fairly extensive selection of Italian beers.

The idea of bringing genuine Italian cooking from different regions into one small restaurant is a wonderful concept. Once I tasted Teresa’a apple pie I began to understand why she drives her truck to Brooklyn every Wednesday. Not that Enoteca’s flour is of inferior quality. But she insists on using the flour that her mother and grandmother have used before her. The crust of the pie is so heavenly flavourful that I picked every single crumb that was left on my plate while sipping the amber-colored Vin Santo at the end of my deeply satisfying meal. And I didn’t even have to take the ferry afterwards to get home.

Reprinted from The Prodigal Borough

Posted on June 5, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

Grandmotherly Italian, All Over the Map

By Mark Hokoda

The idea behind Enoteca Maria is brilliant—and dauntingly difficult to pull off: A rotating lineup of five cooks from around Italy is turned loose to prepare daily-changing, market-driven menus of dishes from their home regions.

Yet it seems to be working. First posts from this four-month-old wine bar and restaurant, a short walk from Staten Island’s ferry terminal, describe delightful and surprising food, made with care. Miss Poste, who went when a cook from Palermo, Sicily, was in the house, loved her bucatini con sarde (with raisins, pine nuts, and briny sardines). Also delicious: clams in spicy red sauce, and cheesy, aromatic veal spiedini (skewers). Other recent Palermo menus included lasagna with chopped meat, peas, mozzarella, and tomato sauce; pasticcio (baked pasta) with sausage, shrimp, cabbage, eggplant, mozzarella, pine nuts, and raisins; and, for dessert, cakes with house-made ricotta.

Read the full review on Chow.

Posted on May 20, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

Chowhound Review

Enoteca Maria, Worth the Staten Island Ferry Boat Fare
by Phantastic

So, I finally went to Enoteca Maria, the new buzz in Staten Island. (For nay sayers so far, read no further, we’ll never convince you.) First, the concept is brilliant. Denise and Joe (proprietors, bar tenders, wine stewards, chatters) decided to open a traditional Enoteca (essentially a wine bar) with little Italian bites to keep you thirsty and satisfied. They didn’t want cooks, or worse yet, chefs. (This is their place, sharing the concept with an ego (or even just another) wasn’t in the cards.) They wanted your little old Italian grandmother; loves to cook, great ideas, used to cooking for a crowd. What they got was a bevy of wonderful Italian women who alternate night and make the menu often twice a day based on what’s in, what’s fresh, what’s within their individual repertoire. Read more on Chowhound.

Posted on May 10, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

Dining Out: Raising The Wine Bar

A quintet of chefs from different regions of Italy deliver a stellar new addition to the North Shore dining scene.

By Pamela Silvestri
Staten Island Advance

Enoteca Maria in St. George created ripples in the borough when it opened three months ago. At the time, Denise and Jody Scaravella’s concept seemed so romantic, perhaps even far-fetched: Every day women from different regions of Italy would take turns in the kitchen preparing lunch and dinner.

In practice, the idea is brilliant. At the very least, it’s a unique endeavor that is orchestrated quite well. So far, Enoteca Maria has been blessed with some good people management and the bonus of a warm, passionate staff. By the way, “enoteca” means “wine bar” in Italian. Maria is Mr. Scaravella’s late mother’s name.

Lunch and dinner menus are updated daily like clockwork before meal times on the restaurant’s Web site. That’s just outstanding! It makes Enoteca Maria the only Staten Island restaurant to take advantage of the Internet in such a way.

Beyond a glass curtain wall, the Enoteca’s dining room can best be described as laid back, industrial environs. Metal fans hook into a jet black ceiling and light comes from caged glass bulbs. Marble floors and gray marble subway tile contribute to a modern, Roman look.

Somewhere in a downstairs kitchen, the Italian ladies hand-craft potato gnocchi, ravioli and Pappardelle ribbons. They bake herbed focaccia and neatly fold cookies with jam and nutella. They produce rudimentary layer cakes out of fresh cream, liquor-soaked sponge cake and fruit.

Teresa, Caterina, Argentina, Nina and Patrizia – the cooks who respectively hail from Palermo, Torretta, Marche, Salerno and Rome – may leave their post behind the stove to check on customers’ reactions.

Not to worry, ladies! Clams in Vongole di Salsa Piccante – Littlenecks bathed in slightly spiced, thin red sauce – were plump and fresh. The Pasta Girasole was an absolute thriller with tubes of fine quality penne tossed in an electric orange sauce made from tomatoes, roasted sunflower seeds and the essence of rendered sweet sausage. Paninis – sometimes tucked with smoked salmon, sometimes with grilled veggies – are made with awesome bread.

Slices of bread topped with anchovy butter and fresh mozzarella (croustini con alici) for lunch one day was simple and fabulous. I think about that item once in a while and the memory makes me salivate.

Bay leaf or thyme-tinged stews cooked separately with oxtail, veal, rabbit and lamb were outrageous. Farro made an unbelievable presence in an already stunning minestrone soup. At one point, Ms. Scaravella offered artisanal cheeses, a wonderful thing to see in a wine bar. Customers weren’t adventurous with such treasures and, alas, those cheeses have gone by the wayside. (Oh, please bring them back.)

Four little treats – like an amuse bouche – with focaccia arrive prior to the meal on miniature square plates. These are always a delightful surprise. See the occasional appearance of Gaeta olives and parsley flecked, vinegar button mushrooms or fresh (yes, fresh!), tender artichoke hearts. Occasionally catch sun-dried tomatoes dotted with vibrant green pine nut pesto or corn (fresh-shaven from the cob) tossed with fennel and carrot discs. All food is presented on matching turquoise platters and mini-plates.

Yes, there is a downside to such fluid menues: Favorite dishes may never be featured again unless the staff is given a few day’s notice. And fussy eaters face a menu limited to about a dozen items. Could Enoteca Maria be extending the best selection of wines by the glass we’ve seen so far on Staten Island? I say yes.

Oenophiles will appreciate how wine is handled in general. For instance, Ms. Scaravella gingerly plucks stemware from an overhead rack with a soft cloth. Hence the customer receives a crystal clear, fingerprint-free goblet. (Note that these are the kinds of goblets a foodie would find in first-class Manhattan restaurants.) Carefully chosen Italian wines are offered by the glass, bottle and even by the flight. Jody Scaravella frequently pops new bottles, enthusiastically offers a taste to guests and asks their opinions. The gesture certainly wins friends.

While Enoteca Maria is fabulous in the wine department, there is just one teensy criticism due to the realities of properly storing its vast inventory: Red wines are sometimes a bit too chilled. Other quibbles include the matter of paper napkins. The high-quality, disposable kind or real linen ones are much more dignified when eating such great food. I also felt that sugar packets tucked on espresso and cappuccino saucers were a diner-esque touch. Surely there’s a more graceful way of handling the condiment.

A remarkable restaurant requires a complete package, one that features honest food, superior ingredients, sincere hospitality and proprietors who are totally into their work. No doubt, Enoteca Maria has all of that. My great hopes are that it can sustain its momentum and that Islanders will see the value in supporting such a unique Island restaurant.

(Reposted courtesy of The Staten Island Advance)

Posted on March 6, 2007 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post

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.