A case for the antipasti

Everybody knows what they want for a main course before they sit down. Almost nobody arrives with a plan for the beginning of the meal, which is a shame, because the beginning is where a kitchen tells you what it actually is.

Two sections, not one

Spuntini are small bites, the things that arrive first and are gone fastest. Antipasti are the plates before the pasta, and they are larger and more considered. Between the two there are ten things on our menu, and every one of them is built to be shared.

What we would order

Polpo alla griglia o fritto. Slow-cooked octopus, and you choose: grilled for the char, fried for the crunch. It arrives with potatoes and a sunchoke garlic cream that people ask us about more than anything else on the list.

Burrata e pomodorini affumicati. Burrata with confit cherry tomatoes and fennel, smoked, with pickled red onion over the top. The smoke is the whole idea. It is not a caprese and it is not trying to be.

Carciofi fritti. Fried artichokes, crisp, with a herb lemon aioli. The kind of plate that is finished before the second round of drinks lands.

Fior di zucchini e mozzarella. Zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella, battered, fried, and served in San Marzano tomato sauce. Direct, seasonal, and very hard to stop eating.

The rule

One plate for every two people, all of it in the middle of the table. Four of you, two plates, and nobody is full when the pasta arrives. That restraint is the entire skill of eating in an Italian restaurant, and it takes most people about three visits to learn.

If you want the showpiece, the tuna tartare comes with black truffle and caviar. If you want the plate everyone at the table will reach for without asking, it is the calamari.