Via Della Pace — Restaurant in New York

ITALIAN TENNIS STARS ! A few days before we jumped on our flight to New York, NY my wife read an article about an Italian restaurant in the East Village, Manhattan being patronized by many of the Italian tennis players competing at the US Tennis Open. HUGE TENNIS FANS ! And we had fabulous seats for the first men's semi-final on Friday, Sept 6th. The article mentioned Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner, Sara Errani, Jasmine Paolini, Flavio Cobolli, Lucia Bronzetti, Lorenzo Musetti & more. I jumped online to book a dinner reservation but the article had blown the place up....fully booked for the duration of the US Tennis Open. OH WELL ! The very next day after we touched at LaGuardia Airport on Thurs, Sept 4th we decided to turn up here cold turkey soon after opening time...5pm because they stated on their website they take walk-ins. BINGO ! When we arrived out front around 5.30pm we were surprised by the rustic appearance of the exterior. BUT THEN ! When we entered a very sweet hostess named Margherita greeted us warmly beside the ornate full bar where a couple of patrons were dining. A TABLE FOR US ! And yes Margherita said they could accommodate us for dinner and led us through to the magnificent dining room with an amazing glass skylight above. WOW ! No Italian tennis players in sight but what a beautiful setting for dinner. It was now in the 2nd week of the US Tennis Open and most of our fav players had already been knocked out....Medvedev, Alcaraz & Rune. HOWEVER ! The very next day we will be watching the Italian and world number one Jannik Sinner play Jack Draper from Great Britain in the first semi-final at 3pm. WE ASKED ! I asked our charming server Caterina if Sinner had been in....yes was her reply. FIRST UP ! I needed a good ice cold beer preferably a hazy IPA. Soon after a busser named Gabriele brought us complimentary artisan bread & dipping sauce plus glasses of water. The craft beer I chose....the Five Boroughs Tiny Juice IPA arrived in a pretty glass. It tasted very refreshing ! Then Caterina took our dinner order...1 x Suppli al Pomodoro ( fried rice balls with tomato sauce and mozzarella ) Appetizer, our 2 entrees 1 x Rigatoni del Pirata, ( baked rigatoni in a pink rum sauce with sausage & mushroom, topped with mozarella cheese ) and 1 x Gnocchi Tricolore ( basil pesto, cherry tomatoes, fresh bufalo mozzarella ) and 1 x Insalatina ( mixed green salad ) Side.We noticed a steady influx of new diners no doubt with dinner reservations. Very soon our fried rice balls arrived and tasted fabulous...very filling. WHOO HOO ! A few minutes later our entrees hit the table.....they looked great and tasted even better. My wife went nuts over the flavor of her baked rigatoni and I had no complaints about my gnocchi. DESSERT ! We always leave room in our tummies for a sweet finale. My wife ordered the SPECIAL DESSERT - Creme Caramel. I am a sucker for gelato so the Gelato - pistacchio-choccolate-vanilla sounded too good to resist. My wife also ordered an Espresso to enjoy with her dessert. My wife didn't mind her creme caramel....probably not her best choice. On the other hand my gelato trio of pistacchio-choccolate-vanilla tasted out of this world...the chocolate was as dark it gets, the pistacchio actually had little chips of pistachio throughout and the vanilla had something going on too...like rose petals. Having just got back from a 2 week vacation in Italy where we tried heaps of incredible gelatos....this was as good as it gets. So we didn't see any Italian tennis stars but our dinner was super delicious. The next day we watched Jannik Sinner beat Jack Draper in a very exciting semi-final and then on Sunday Sinner beat the American Taylor Fritz in the final....

DESTINATION NIRVANA ! On our first dinner visit here we were hoping to run into a few of the Italian tennis players after their matches at the US Tennis Open. OH WELL ! We didn't see any tennis stars but the food, drinks, service and ambience were beyond sensational. Before we finished our 2 week vacation in New York, NY we knew we had to return here. On Wed, Sept 11th we decided to turn up cold turkey at 5.pm....we couldn't get a reservation. YEAH BABY ! The kind host told us we had a table until 7pm. At this point we had the entire beautiful dining room to ourselves...but not for long. A fun server named Luca soon came by to help us. FIRST UP ! A really nice ice cold beer would be great...I chose the same one as on our first visit. In the meantime our good mate Flavio the colorful food runner brought us a glass carafe of water and 2 glasses. Luca returned with my ice cold Five Boroughs Tiny Juice IPA in a lovely tall glass...it tasted very refreshing. WHOO HOO ! And then Flavio brought us Complimentary Artisan Bread with dipping sauce....many restaurants do not hand out free bread anymore. OH YEAH ! To kick things off we ordered 1 x Suppli Cacio Pepe ( fried rice balls with cheese and black pepper ) Appetizer. We tried the fried rice balls on our first visit....totally delicious. Not to be confused with arancini which we also love. Our rustic Italian artisan bread tasted lovely. ENTREES ! My wife ordered Lasagna Alla Bolognese ( typical lasagna bolognese style ) while I had to have the Pinsa Fichi e Prosciutto ( Roman flat bread with fresh mozzarella, Parma prosciutto and figs ) on the SPECIALS. WHOO HOO ! Out came our Fried Rice Balls appetizer courtesy of Flavio the polite food runner. TOO DELICIOUS FOR WORDS ! In fact we ordered 3 more...one serve of each variety to take back to our apartment. Just after 6pm our entree meals hit the table. My wife loved her well made Lasagna Bolognese heaps but not quite as much as the unforgettable Baked Rigatoni on our first visit. THE BEST FLATBREAD EVER ! My Fig & Prosciutto Roman Flatbread totally nailed it....brown and a bit crispy underneath but delicately bready on top with the prosciutto, figs & fresh mozzarella. When our server Luca checked on us again I ordered another beer...this time a Montauk Easy Riser Belgian White. It came out pretty quick...ice cold in a lovely tall glass and tasted very good. By now the beautiful dining room was virtually packed out. THERE'S TIME ! At 6.25pm we ordered desserts...1 x Tortino al Cioccolato ( chocolate lava cake with vanilla gelato ) and 1 x Gelato ( pistachio-chocolate-vanilla ). I tried this Italian gelato trio on our first visit and it was as good as it gets. Our decadent looking desserts arrived promptly and disappeared almost as fast....Made in Heaven. We paid the bill by credit card and headed for the front door thanking Luca, Flavio and Gabriele along the way. The interesting looking dude behind the bar was Giovanni Bartocci ( the co-owner with his business partner Marco Ventura ). I told Giovanni we loved our 2 dinner visits to their fabulous restaurant. I HAD TO ASK ! Do you identify more with Roman or Italian....the instant reply was Roman with some Italian. Giovanni was born in Rome. HOW GOOD ? As good if not better than any Italian restaurant we have dined in...

The food was ok but the service was horrific and put a damper on the whole night. We were seated for a birthday dinner that was booked in advance, and there were only 7 seats when we arrived rather than the booked 8. When we asked our waiter if we can please add a chair to the end of the table he said "he'll see if he can" and then disappeared. Already off putting but whatever. He angrily dragged over a chair and never set the 8th plate. Again annoying but we're there for a birthday (also in the reservation) so we're trying to have a good time and we push through. He was annoyed with us from the very start and anything we asked on the menu it was "no" or "I don't know". For example we asked for an espresso martini and asked if we can replace it with casamigos and he said they don't do that. Ok, fine. He didn't come up to us a single time after the food was ordered, we had to wave our hands to flag him down about 40 minutes in to ask for another drink, which again he found VERY annoying. He then made a mistake and got the birthday girl the wrong drink, and when she very nicely pointed it out he ROLLED HIS EYES AND SCOFFED. He even went as far as to argue that it was what she ordered (it wasn't. We were all there and heard her ask for something else.) At the end we asked to order dessert (again had to flag him down) and he said "ok what." And we nicely asked for dessert menus. He brought us two menus for the entire table and then disappeared again. We ended up leaving without dessert and had such a hard time finding him to ask for the check that we had to physically go up and ask someone to check us out. After which he reappeared to add his mandatory 18% tip that he did not deserve. Keep in mind this place is so small and he only was servicing like 3 tables. Half the time the other tables were also empty. So it's not like he was super swamped. My friend was really upset that she was treated so rudely on her birthday and we weren't even able to get her a birthday candle or dessert to sing her happy birthday because the guy was being so awful we decided to just leave instead. A group of 8, you didn't ask us if we want more drinks, more apps, or dessert? Not only did the restaurant lose money, but you lost tip money given that it's a percentage, and none of us will be back. Messy all around. The waiter had neck tattoos and a weird jacket on. Looked like he didn't even work there and he’s some angry guy they dragged in from the street or something. (I have nothing against tattoos, just want to make sure he can be identified from this review for management...