Gran Tivoli

Gran Tivoli Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & décor: Australian restaurateurs Jason Scott and Robert Marchetti’s first NYC restaurant, in NoLIta, serves coastal Italian-inspired food. The space is long and narrow, with moody lighting, dark wood, and a bar that runs about half its length. There’s also a cocktail bar called Peppi’s Cellar down a flight of stairs from the dining room.

Likes: Polenta with crab meat, veal schnitzel, raspberry and grappa tart.
Dislikes: Can get crowded and noisy.

Food & Drinks: In this era of short and sweet menus, Gran Tivoli’s offers more than 40 dishes, from meat to seafood to plentiful veggie options. One of those is a Calabrian salt-baked baby beet salad, tossed with cashew cheese, sorrel and pickled strawberries. Steamed king whiting cartoccio is baked in a paper bag with a turmeric-fish bone broth and hedgehog mushrooms, and cheesy polenta is topped with a generous mountain of sweet crab meat. For the carnivores, salt-crusted bistecca Fiorentina and juicy veal schnitzel finished with anchovies and chilis are both first-rate options. Save room for the raspberry and grappa tart with vanilla mascarpone, or a cheese plate with Pecorino or Taleggio. The mostly Italian wine list includes a few selections from France, California and Australia.