Piccola Cucina Focacceria
120 MacDougal Street, btw W 3rd & Bleecker; Greenwich Village; 212.677.7707
There's nothing more disgustingly American than cramming your pie-hole with greasy food at 4am, but cram it with regional European specialties and suddenly you're disgustingly...worldly! Setting you up for the latter, Piccola Cucina Focacceria, grand opening today.
From the chef/owner behind SoHo's Piccola Cucina, Focacceria's a blue striped, 12 seat, takeaway counter'd hole-in-the-wall serving up a focused menu of artisanal Italian noshes and freshly baked pastries 'til 3am, a concept inspired by the Sicilian chef's post-party gorging experiences in a land where revelers are so exacting about late-night grub that it leaves little room for concerns with other matters, like globo-political relevance. The namesake dish is Focaccia di Recco, a Ligurian pizza consisting of two super-thin focaccia crusts sandwiching a layer of crescenza cheese; the delicate base's then built up with a range of toppings, including fresh pesto, tomato sauce & oregano, capers & anchovies, and imported prosciutto cotto, whose fresh-off-the-boat status explains why it doesn't get your hilarious Pacific Blue references. Other highlights include open faced, whole-loaf bruschetta (mushroom/crescenza/ bresaola/spinach, mozzarella/tomato/ parsley/tuna, and scamorza/mortadella/ truffle oil); piping hot croissants; and fist sized, Bolognese-stuffed rice balls, which you could totally see through his spandex on Dancing With The Stars.
Rounding it out are three regular-steez 'zas, one topped with mozzarella, brie, Parmesan, and porcini cream, enough dairy to ensure that your body will resemble the very globe you so obviously trot.
