California pizza lovers are certainly eating well, with a new list revealing three of the top five pizzerias in the United States reside in the Golden State. The Italian website 50 Top Pizza revealed their list for the best American pizzerias, which was topped for the fifth year in a row by Anthony Mangieri’s’s Una … Read more
Rocco DiSpirito is back with his first Big Apple restaurant in six years — and it’s about time. Bar Rocco (32 W. 48th St.) is a proudly old-school Italian American restaurant on the Kimpton Era Hotel’s second floor. It’s plain wonderful, thanks to DiSpirito’s skills, which first wowed the city at French-American Union Pacific in the late 1990s. … Read more
It’s not every day that Steve Carrell shows up to hype your neighborhood pizza joint — but for one longtime Los Angeles staple, it’s apparently just business as usual. Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant dropped a playful Instagram Reel this week featuring the “Rooster” star standing outside the eatery, pointing up at the sign and delivering a … Read more
The Big Apple is the No. 1 food destination in the US, according to a perplexing new survey from SIXT, a premium car-service provider based in Germany. But New York City ranked a middling No. 7 in the world, behind Tokyo, Paris, Osaka, Porto, London and Seoul. Can we really be a lesser food town than Porto? The … Read more
Forget French Laundry, Napa Valley has a new hotspot — and it isn’t even a trendy restaurant. The latest dining craze in California wine country is the Yountville home of chef Sarah Heller and her husband, master sommelier Jason Heller. The gourmet couple hosts an intimate, five-course meal for 12 guests roughly twice a month, … Read more
Anything is pastable. When Forma Pasta Factory first opened its doors in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2019, they never dreamed they’d become America’s top eatery for Italian delivery this year, according to a recent DoorDash report. In fact, they originally planned to forego delivery service altogether. So when the third-party app announced America’s Favorite Delivery Spots … Read more
Babbo, the once-great flagship restaurant from once-great Mario Batali, is back with a new owner and a new chef — and, maybe hard to believe, it’s better than the fabled original. Babbo limped on after Batali was divested in 2019, in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Mega-restaurateur Stephen Starr bought the place … Read more
Book that table. A West Village red sauce joint has been named the third hardest reservation to snag in the country. Although Don Angie (103 Greenwich Avenue) opens its reservations 7 days in advance, starting at 9 am, according to OpenTable’s 2026 Dining Trends Report, New Yorkers are booking them up fast. Sushi restaurant Kase … Read more
They’re gobbling down these slices. Pino’s Pizza of Deer Park has something savory to be thankful for this Turkey Day — their viral Thanksgiving pizza pie, which is served with sliced roasted turkey breast, gravy, sausage and apple cornbread stuffing and topped off with cranberry sauce. Customers trot from far and wide to get their hands … Read more
Shelly Fireman, the colorful restaurateur who created long-lived Trattoria dell Arte and Fiorello and filled his places with his own whimsical, sometimes bawdy sculptures, passed away at age 93. His passing leaves a deep rupture in the city’s Italian hospitality scene. “If New York City’s restaurant industry had a Hall of Fame, Shelly Fireman would be listed among the … Read more
On the outside, the Shell station at the corner of Victoria Boulevard and Seneca Avenue on Staten Island looks like any other of the hundreds of fuel depots in NYC’s most car-centric borough — but only one of them can claim Italo and Gerardo Perito. Venture through the sliding doors into what elsewhere might be a … Read more
That’s-a one spicy pizzeria! A Long Island pizza shop has gone viral for saucy social media video skits that mercilessly mock bad customer behaviors — with one clip showing a dining dunce punished with water sprayed in his face. Phil’s Pizzeria in Syosset has been dramatizing blood-boiling interactions with customers using some real pie-in-the-face humor … Read more
He’s making gravy. Five years ago, PJ Monte started bottling, hand-labeling and selling his family’s red sauce around local restaurants and specialty stores, earning him the moniker “Sauce Boss.” Now, he’s really cooking. Monte’s Fine Foods Family Recipe Tomato Sauce is available in hundreds of retailers nationwide, and Monte is promoting himself by cruising around … Read more
Holy cannoli! In his storied career in the kitchen, chef Salvo Lo Castro has been a star around the world and at the Vatican, plating pasta for popes, world leaders and movie stars alike. These days, he’s traded a life of crosses in Rome for the crosswalks of New York City. “The secret is I … Read more
A budget-friendly recipe is going viral for channeling an Italian delicacy with just two ingredients that can be found at most roadside rest stops: coffee and an ice-cream sandwich. “It’s July and you know what that means: It’s gas station affogato season,” New York-based travel expert and television host Samantha Brown recently posted on social media. An … Read more
This sandwich influencer has gone brick and mortadella. Danny Mondello, the Italian-American behind @Meals_by_cug has turned his social media brand — making chicken cutlet sandwiches and tossing pasta into the air from a frying pan for more than 2 million followers on TikTok and 1.5 million on Instagram — into Casa Cugine, a new sandwich … Read more
Now this is home cooking! Upper East Side Italian restaurant Caffe Buon Gusto has been quietly seating customers in an apartment next door when their dining room is full, cramming them into its two bedrooms, living room and even hallway — stunning the unsuspecting. “I had zero idea. They have a main dining room, that’s … Read more
A woman is getting slammed online for the unusual way in which she made a lasagna. A traditional Italian lasagna is made a specific way — with lasagna noodles, meat sauce filling and ricotta cheese. So when one woman online tried making a “healthier” version of it — the internet lost its marbles. A woman … Read more
They stirred the pot. A Florida couple went viral for hosting a meatball-themed gender reveal party, which some critics panned as more tasteless than three day-old cannoli. Mom-to-be Rosanna Fontana posted footage of the March 2 celebration on Instagram, showing the festivities inside restaurant North Italia where a sign asked, “What will Baby Fontana have? … Read more
If you want a table at Lucali, you’ve got to wait — or hire someone to do it for you. The acclaimed Carroll Gardens pizzeria — which is cash-only, BYOB, doesn’t take reservations and is beloved by celebs such as Jay-Z and Beyonce — tops the list of a recent report from TaskRabbit on the most … Read more