Alto
11 E. 53rd St. (Madison & Fifth Aves.) 
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New York, NY 10022
212-308-1099 | Make Restaurant Reservations
Cuisine
Open
Lunch Mon.-Fri., Dinner Mon.-Sat.Features
- Full bar
- Reservations suggested
- Outdoor dining
- Jackets required
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 There's something so antithetical and counterintuitive to elevating Italian cuisine, a food that is so rooted in the home. Hence, the relative lack of haute eateries in Italy. But this is New York and leaving a cuisine un-elevated to a Big Apple chef is like a competitive eater leaving food on his plate. Enter Alto, not necessarily named for its stratospheric levels of cuisine elevation, but for the northern Italian-Alpine region that straddles Italy and Austria, called Alto Adige. Chef Michael White (who also works his magic at Marea and Convivio) might be the first to admit you won't find many of his creations on menus back in the home country, but after sampling the smoked goose liver carpaccio or squid ink cappuccino, there comes a time when you just shrug and, along with White, dismiss tradition altogether. Menus are based on the season, but one may find dishes such as duck and foie gras ravioli in a red wine jus, sautéed branzino with pancetta and caramelized Brussels sprouts, and seared duck breast with Tuscan lentils. The white-tableclothed dining room is quiet to the point of nerve-wracking and the service rates extremely high on the attentiveness level. The wine list is a topnotch choice of Italian vino. |
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