March 28 2010

Lotto Otto

Based on this past week, you’d think I was having a love affair with Mario Batali.  However, I’m not so into overweight red heads with ponytails.  I just happen to love, love, love his food.  Saturday night, our growing group dined at Otto, Batali’s pizza, pasta, wine joint located smack dab in the middle of the Village right above Washington Square Park.

Although this is Batali’s most casual restaurant (i.e. least expensive), the space was buzzing and definitely a place to see and be seen.  The interior was a gorgeous open wine bar with additional dining rooms, which kept the packed restaurant surprisingly less noisy. 

Modeled after a train station, the hosts post your name on board.  Quite charming, right?

Although our party of 10 had a reservation, we still had to wait.  Fortunately, the staff was extremely accommodating and showered us with bubbling glasses of golden Prosecco.

I was Team Caption for the cheese plate and ordered a variety of seven different fromages for our table.  I’m a total cheese snob, but I found the majority of these stinky suckers to be quite excellent.  My faves?  The Ricotta (far left), the Coach Farm Goat (top left corner) and the Taleggio (bottom center).  Clearly, I prefer soft cheese.

In addition, the pizzas and pastas lived up to their esteemed reputation.  The best pizza?  Mushroom.

The best pasta? Spaghetti Carbonara.

Not pictured? The unreal Olive Oil Gelato.  It sounds bizarre, but the only odd thing about it was how unbelievably fabulous it tasted in my mouth.