“I'm so excited about the pasta place, because I was like, wow, finally, I get to do something a little different,” Renato Poliafito told Appetito this summer as he put the finishing touches on his new “fine-casual” Italian restaurant, Pasta Night, which opened yesterday on Vanderbilt Ave. in Prospect Heights.
An acclaimed baker, Poliafito has built up his all-day café, Ciao, Gloria, across the street from Pasta Night over the past few years, with popular weekend brunches and as a go-to neighborhood spot for Italian pastries. Now, the first-generation Italian-American is showcasing his savory side with a full menu of pastas, starters, and mains. Tiramisu and other Italian desserts are available too, which Poliafito told Appetito he was thrilled to develop for the new project.
“I want to lean on spoon desserts, like tiramisu, budinos, panna cottas. Stuff that I can’t do [at Ciao, Gloria] because we don’t have a refrigerated display,” he told us during an interview promoting his hit cookbook Dolci! “I definitely want to hit that tiramisu out of the park.”
The tiramisu looks to be one of the draws at Pasta Night, although the restaurant is designed to focus not on a dish or even a meal but as a place to use for different experiences. It could be a traditional trattoria, or an aperitivo pit stop on the way to dinner elsewhere. It has a curated alimentari where locals can pick up high-quality dried pasta, olive oil, and other items. And, given Poliafito’s pedigree, it’s bound to become a dessert stop as well.
Poliafito partnered with a loyal Ciao, Gloria customer and longtime educator, Joseph Catalanotti, on Pasta Night, and they have built out a team that includes chef Carly Voltero, who cooked in Boston restaurants before landing at Ciao, Gloria.
Together, they’ve developed a menu that Italian food-obsessed New Yorkers will be scrambling to try. The appetizers include an antipasti board that will feature a rotating selection of meats, cheeses, dips, and house-made focaccia, as well as salads, arancini, calamari, and polpette. Pastas veer from crowd pleasers such as spaghetti in a marinara sauce with the option to add meatballs to more complex dishes such as pasta Genovese, here combining gemelli, broccoli rabe, salsiccia (sausage), and pecorino. The early menu touts Lasagna alla Norma as a signature. Many of the dishes can be made vegetarian and/or gluten-free.
From the mains, a chicken Milanese served with a knife stuck in it will surely earn attention, and branzino and seasonal dishes will roll out soon, as will a more complete cocktail menu. Desserts also include gelato and sorbetto from Biddrina Gelato (from the team behind Locanda Vini e Olii).
Pasta Night is being billed as “fine-casual,” in that it is walk-in only, but the dining room is welcoming and well-designed by Studio Parallel, which aimed to “evoke the coziness of the Sicilian countryside by way of employing earthy tones and highlighting the exposed brick and original wood flooring,” according to a release, which notes that the location was originally an Italian market in the 1940s. The restaurant seats 50, including an outdoor patio that can be enclosed.
Pasta Night is open for dinner seven days a week, from 5–10pm for, with delivery and lunch service to start later in the fall, along with a built-out cocktail program.
575 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238, @pastanightbk, pastanightbk.com
