Kevin Skobac
lovelifenow
Last night we took the L train out to Bushwick to Roberta's to try out the restaurant of Carlo Mirarchi, one of Food & Wine's best new chefs. We'd had the pizza before at least year's Madison Square Mark't, but supposedly as good as it was the pizza was just the beginning.
First, a few comments on the place. If you weren't looking for you'd probably pass right by it. You go in a door that looks like the back endtrance to a kitchen, but once you step in you find yourself greeted with communal tables, a nice open wood-burning pizza oven, and a bar in the back. And the whole place is a lot bigger than appears at first, because as you make your way to the bar you see there's space for events, an outdoor beer garden, and even a garden where Roberta's grows its own vegetables. The place just feels really friendly and fun, and I'm sure it's even better in the summer when the outdoor areas are probably filled and the garden is blossoming.
Onto what we ate. We started by splitting a delicious margherita pizza for an appetizer, which actually makes a good appetizer because the crust is pretty thin, so you won't fill up. For our main course Angela ordered the orecchiette, and I had the skirt steak. Both were fantastic. The orecchiette was the perfect texture; the skirt steak, while cooked well, was made by the unique seasonings and sides. The steak was accompanied by pressed & crisped fingerling potatos, ramps and a homemade salsa verde which was made of a number of things including fresh mint. We polished off both dishes quickly, impressed and even surprised by how good they were. Then for dessert we had their "candy bar", which is milk gelato, peanuts & caramel crisp, and a few forms of chocolate.
All in all it was a great dinner- and we'll definitely be going back to Roberta's soon. The food was delicious, I love the atmosphere, it's very well priced, and it looks to offer a great summer happy hour scene as well. I'm sure we'll have more dishes to talk about soon.
