Archive for the ‘News and Press’ Category

Posted on September 24, 2009 - by admin - (Comment * FaceBook It * Send to Friend)

Restaurant Looking for Nonnas Who Cook

by Tevah Platt
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

St. George — Enoteca Maria is looking for a few good nonnas.
  
Since the St. George restaurant opened in 2007, it has capitalized on the behind-the-scenes talents of the Italian housewife.

A rotating staff of cooks—“ladies,” owner Joe Scaravella calls them—prepares dishes representing eight unique regions of Italy and anonymous, centuries-old recipes preserved along matrilineal lines.
   
The Enoteca is looking to cement its niche by hiring six new “grandmothers.”

“Everyone is looking for their grandmother’s cooking,” says the goateed, round-spectacled Scaravella, known for chatting with customers on the subject of wine. He refers to the mission in what he acknowledges is improper Italian: “guarde per nonna,” literally, “looking for grandma.”

Anna Maria (Nina) Picariolo of the Bronx, by way of Salerno, one of the eatery’s eight cooks who take turns as chef-of-the-day, joined the staff when she read about the restaurant’s opening in the Italian newspaper, Oggi. She starts her work day inventing a menu drawn from her region’s culinary traditions and the ingredients in the Enoteca refrigerator. Ms. Picariolo, who speaks Italian, said through a translator last week that Enoteca makes her happy because the menu never repeats. It’s wholly different from cooking at home, she said: “A casa – me no like.”
 
Each cook has a chance to showcase her skills and bask in patrons’ adoration.

“Adelena (Masana, of Naples) dotes on her husband and sons and I’m sure they complain, ‘Why didn’t you make this? This one has too much salt….” These women are easily taken for granted,” said Scaravella of one of his most prized chefs.

The proprietor is seeking cooks who would work about two days a month.

They needn’t be grandmothers, but they must bring their heritage to the table, Scaravella said.

The restaurant’s youngest cook by far is Alma Benussi, 26 and a dark-eyed beauty, who lives in Milan and visits the restaurant to cook for pleasure. Her cooking inspired Scaravella to write in his Facebook update: “If you close your eyes, you’ll swear that your grandma is cooking in the kitchen, and if you open them, you’ll see what she looked like 50 years earlier.”

The Enoteca opens around 3 and serves roughly 50 to 100 guests a night. The menu changes daily, but the frutta di mare salad and capozzelli (stuffed sheep’s head) are regular menu items.

The restaurant and its lineup of cooks will be featured on an upcoming episode of WABC-TV’s Rachael Ray Show on October 9.

“The ladies come in here and they get applause,” said Scaravella. “It’s about time they get credit for what they do.”
    
Tevah Platt covers the North and East shores of Staten Island. She can be reached at [email protected]

Posted on September 23, 2009 - by admin - (Comment * FaceBook It * Send to Friend)

Guest cook from Milan brings recipes and wine to the Enoteca

Over the past year, Enoteca Maria has gotten a lot of attention; We’ve been covered extensively here in the US as well as in Italy and the UK. As the word spreads in the motherland, grandmothers from different parts of Italy have contacted us about their love of cooking.

On Saturday, February 20th, Enoteca Maria was proud to have Milena from Monza, Milano as our guest cook. Milena is the owner of the Alla Stanga Enoteca in Milano and prepared her favorite recipes paired with wines she had shipped directly from her Enoteca to our Enoteca.

The wines featured for pairing:

“Lavinia” Barbera del Monferrato, a very pleasant, young and richly fruit-filled wine.

La Vigna Vecchia” Barbera d’Asti, fermented from a high quality grape that exemplifies the best characteristics of traditional Barberas.

“La Vita” Moscato d’Asti, a small batch wine with complex and pleasant aromatic characteristics perfect with sweets to finish a meal.

Click to download the full menu.

Alma Benussi helps Milena from Monza in the kitchen at Enoteca Maria

One of the dishes prepared by Milena from Monza

The crowd at Enoteca Maria.
Photos by Nick Fevelo

Posted on April 19, 2009 - by admin - (Comment * FaceBook It * Send to Friend)

Teresa Woos Judges with Homemade Lasagna

The Annual Pasta Bowl sponsored by Community Resources in Travis on Staten Island was held on March 8, 2009. Community Resources offers work-study programs for adults with disabilities.

The judges chose Enoteca Maria of St George as winner of the First Place traveling trophy. Enoteca’s award-winning pasta was a Sicilian Lasagna prepared by Nonna Teresa Scalici and consisted of layers of pasta with speck, prociutto, eggplant, peas and cheeses covered in her traditional tomato sauce. Enoteca was a last minute entry, and arrived at the Pasta Bowl with nothing but three trays of lasagna, aluminum chafing dishes, a spatula and a few business cards. This was a case of the food talking for itself: no frills, just good homecooking.

Valarie Delsante accepts the first-place trophy on behalf of Enoteca Maria. Photo by Melinda Gottlieb

Posted on April 16, 2009 - by admin - (Comment * FaceBook It * Send to Friend)

Mille Fiori Favoriti Review

Pat from the millefiorifavoriti/blogspot writes a great review of Enoteca Maria complete with photos of the food her and her husband enjoyed. Here’s an excerpt:

No matter who is in the kitchen when you go, each meal at Enoteca Maria begins with a generous and complimentary tray of antipasto, selections vary each time. We had small tastes of broccoli rabe, roasted cauliflower and potatoes, marinated eggplant and onion focaccia.”

We were treated to another complimentary dish of a small bowl of beef stew, cooked in tomato sauce. My husband was in heaven, as it taste exactly like his mother use to make it, with big chunks of celery, carrot and potato….

Read the entire review at Mille Fiori Favoriti.

Posted on March 5, 2009 - by admin - (Comment * FaceBook It * Send to Friend)

Staten Island Advance - Dining Out Review

ENOTECA MARIA / THREE STARS
By Pamela Silvestri
March 5, 2009

After being totally spoiled by home-cooked meals while on maternity leave, this palate scoped out several restaurants for possible review: Only Enoteca Maria made the grade for a solid three-star rating.

This eatery certainly sets the bar for quality Italian food in the borough. In short, this is not your abodanza/gravy type of joint. Instead, Enoteca’s style translates to simple, tasty edibles that can be pleasantly rough around the edges. Indeed it has little hang ups – we’ll get to that later – but wholesome home-style cooking is the ultimate reward from this St. George kitchen.

Enoteca came to Staten Island in winter 2007 with a unique concept: Female cooks from various regions of Italy played chef with a different lady starring behind the stove every day. The idea turned out to be a winning one that whet the appetites of bloggers citywide.

It is still a little wine bar that serves dinners (no more lunches–boo!) and flavorful accoutrements on heavy robin’s egg plateware, an attractive backdrop for colorful food. Too bad these neat table settings make reasonably sized portions appear small, and plates typically are cool to the touch, something that pulls heat out of food.

Gifts from the kitchen–tasty amuse bouche like sundried tomato strips with pignoli nuts or garlicky cauliflower come with hunks of foccaccia – start the meal. Not so amusing for some patrons: They arrive after the food order is placed, hence no bread basket goodies on which to nibble.

Along with apps, entrees and handmade pastas, the menu features spuntino (small plates) like chick pea and grape tomato salad seasoned with oregano, an artichoke swollen with seasoned breadcrumb or quartered then marinated and grilled with balsamic vinegar. Polpette (meatballs) are intensely garlicked with distinct meat flavor, a nice chemistry that happens when few fillers clutter the meat mixture. Sliced mushrooms in “sweet tomato sauce” are very good, although the sauce looked unappealingly heavy with oil.

And pizza–as in the explosively flavorful four-cheese variety which melds gorgonzola, provolone, mozzarella and parmesan–is like no other pie on S.I., something perhaps a home cook might pull together in his own kitchen using top notch ingredients.

One recent evening, cook Adelina made gnocchi in a few shining flavors–sundried tomato, spinach and potato–turning out those steaming dumplings with pleasant pillowy-doughy texture. Vibrantly colored sautéed fresh veggies shared a plate with a fist-sized puff pastry pocket folded with floured chicken breast bits, oozing mozzarella and tangy orange marmalade, a seemingly simple combination that delivered sophisticated, contrasting flavors.

Zuppe di Pesce (housemade seafood soup) was thick with calamari yet shy on broth. Salmon with capers and olives featured a fish that was overcooked and devoid of flavor. Perfectly steamed whole Branzini bass came tucked in a crumpled mass of aluminum foil. Basted in its own juices with fresh garlic and herbs, it was thoroughly delightful despite a messy presentation. A few items listed on the menu teased but weren’t always featured, including capunatz (sheep’s head) stuffed with breadcrumb. With dessert, cookies were grainy and could be better. Biscotti, presumably a staple sweet in the repertoire, was notably absent on our visits. But an island of vanilla semifreddo (half-frozen gelato) floating in espresso was extraordinary.

Enoteca’s patrons have expressed mixed emotions on service, something worthy of mention.

Fans of the place enthuse over the relaxed atmosphere and the owner’s attentiveness. A server (or the owner himself for that matter) might replenish a beverage on the house, bring over a freshly prepared side dish for sampling or add fruit to an almost finished pitcher of house wine. Some find this behavior to be over-solicitous. Others, like myself, find the gestures to be unpretentious, incredibly warm and a sign of good service from one of the borough’s finer establishments.

Menu: Enoteca (Italian translation: wine bar) serves home-style regional Italian food cooked by several different female cooks straight from The Boot. The menu has a staple spuntino (a menu of small plates meant for sharing as appetizers), but for the most part offerings change nightly depending on the featured gal in the kitchen.

Atmosphere: Narrow storefront houses marble floors & tabletops, pearlescent subway wall tiles & caged glass bulbs making for a sophisticated industrial décor. Seats 30 (only two seats at the bar). Acoustics can be brash and loud but for some customers this is part of Enoteca’s unique charm.

Hours: Abbreviated menu of appetizers, salads & pizza Wednesday-Sunday, 3 to 5 p.m. Full menu starts at 5 p.m. and runs to about 11 p.m. Evening hours can be erratic so call before paying a visit.

Prices: Apps generally run under $10; most entrees under $20. Major credit cards accepted.

Drinks: Bellinis (seasonal fruit floated in wine), plus an interesting Italian wine inventory with all bottles offered by the glass. Oenophiles will love the proper vino stemware & the staff’s enthusiasm for allowing sample sips.

Specs: Street/meter parking is plentiful after 5 p.m. Municipal parking lot is across the street. Check the St. George Theater schedule: When shows are playing, neighborhood parking is tight. Wheelchair access is very awkward but doable at a few tables. Bathroom is too tiny for negotiating a wheelchair.

(Article reprinted with kind permission of The Staten Island Advance)

Posted on March 1, 2009 - by admin - 1 comment

Yelp Reviews

Excerpts from Yelp Reviews

I have been to Sicily, twice; Naples, twice; Rome three times; Agrigento and Ragusa once, and Enoteca Maria for the first time last week. My visit to this eatery was like going back to Italy! The food was great and fresh and original and simply divine. The eggplant dish (appetizer) was unbelievably rich and tasty. The home Anti pasta was a palate pleaser, texture so fine, if food could be silk, this Antipasta was the “bomb.” My main entree, the baked fish, was just so original, so native, no home cooked, that I thought of my Puerto Rican great grandmother’s cooking…… Italian - Puerto Rican? Yeah, they are both “LATIN!” - our languages that is…. The dessert was the pear fruit cake, OMG! The bill was about 100.00 for two, but the price was well worth it (my dinner guest had two entrees!, a great wine and a vinaigrette, pear, salad, to DIE FOR!!!! ) . I can’t give this place Five Stars, because to do so would place it in Heaven, and I want this place to stay on Earth.
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I used to live on Central Ave when this place first opened. I never visited it until last night. My best friend and I sat at the two stools at the bar. (We always prefer to be served at the bar; more of an at home experience). The decor which consists of exposed brick walls, iron antiques on the walls and counters, and extensive wine selections makes the place unlike any other.
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Our meal last Saturday was unbelievable, and Joe’s wine recommendations elevated the already delicious food. This might have been the best meal I enjoyed in a very long time. Great food, tremendously full wines, good prices and a staff truly making it a memorable visit. Even though I was stuffed, I couldn’t resist asking for an order of white bean and sausage soup to go (for lunch the next day).
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I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my two trips to Enoteca Maria. My interest had long been piqued by the concept behind the place where six Italian grandmothers take turns in the kitchen so that every night restaurant patrons enjoy traditional home cooking from a different region of Italy! It thus pays to do research and look up the restaurant’s website as to which grandmother is cooking the day of your visit, and what the menu will be like.
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This place is so unique, and I am happy to see the addition to the community there. They literally hire Italian ladies who love to cook, and on the night that they are cooking, THEY are the head chef. There is proof of this through the open kitchen where you can see these cute ladies hard at work (on an electric stove no less)! The result: feeling like you were invited to a dinner at someones lovely home. Even down to the serving dishes, it feels so homey. The food is quite delicious, as the menu offers traditional italian dishes that were most likely their own recipes.
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I love this place. It is simple and beautiful. The food is not simple but beautifully presented. There are different chefs–so the menu varies–like home-cooking with the same surprises. I like this idea as I never know what the meal will be like, as oppposed to my normal favorite restaurants where I can’t wait for a particular dish.

Read full reviews on Yelp.