THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED F. illi Ponte Ristorante

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED F. illi Ponte Ristorante Restaurant Review:

A former 1890s longshoremen's hotel has been turned into a tasteful, family-run showplace. Downstairs is a plush bar with overstuffed leather chairs, serving brick-oven pizzas. Up an Italian-tile staircase is a cigar lounge and two handsome dining rooms with drop-dead views of the Hudson. The brick walls, high beamed ceiling and Persian carpets over wooden floors come together beautifully, and the service is first class. The food is pretty good, too. Try the Ponte salad with mixed greens, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, crispy bacon and sherry wine vinaigrette; veal meatballs with Italian hot peppers, onions, roasted garlic and basil; paper thin center-cut filet mignon tartare with avocado purée, black truffle, shallots, pine nuts, shaved Pecorino cheese and toasted bread; potato-crusted Norwegian salmon filet in a red bell pepper-cream sauce on top of a vegetable risotto cake; or the grilled 16-ounce Black Angus steak with mozzarella mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. The wine list is first-rate, as is the people-watching.