First & Last Tavern

First & Last Tavern Restaurant Review:

This family-run restaurant has been turning out brick oven pizzas since 1936---and it hasn't changed the recipe for its first-rate, robust tomato sauce and meatballs since it first opened either. Prices, too, seem to be stuck in a former era: a plate of spaghetti will set you back just $9.50; add meatballs or sausage for an additional buck fifty. Other pasta dishes please as well, especially the linguine---be it with clams with red or white sauce, zippy puttanesca, or bright scampi. Broccoli rabe and sausage tossed with penne, garlic and olive oil makes for soulful peasant fare. But the best dish is the kitchen's spiciest: braised bone-in chicken pieces sautéed with garlic, olives and pepperoncini. Then again, if brick-oven pizzas are your thing, you'll find few better: thin, crunchy crusts are judiciously sauced and topped. Finally, the bread---crusty but with a soft, chewy center---serves as a reminder to stroll across the street to the First & Last Bakery Café for loaves to take home, as well as dessert like cannoli, bread pudding or a hot fudge sundae.