Salumeria Rosi bursts onto the scene in East Village, offering a lively scene to brighten up the avenues. As the second location of this beloved UWS staple, they’re debuting some exclusive offerings such as the café menu and extended bar hours as the warmer months take over.
The “Salumeria” cafe entryway
The space officially opened on January 28th, we stopped by last week to sample some of their northern Italian specialties. Walking in, the space begins through the Salumeria and cafe areas, stocked with glistening Italian pastries, salads, and delicatessen samplings. It opens up as you go further in, through the cocktail bar and onto the main dining room, with elegant tables stacked across the long booth on one side, a few high tops, and group booths. We settled into the dining room and began to peruse their ample menu, featuring classics like their Spaghetti Al Pomodoro, and modern favorites like the Tagliatelle Al Tartufo.
A couple glasses of their Lambrusco to started our night – Salumeria Rosi features the “Pruno Nero” from Cleto Chiarli, which is effervescent, biting, and chilled to wintry perfection. We ordered their Carciofi Fritti, crispy artichoke hearts atop a cacio e pepe cream, as our first appetizer. The decadent sauce at the bottom paired so well with the warm, frizzled vegetable, and we knew the evening’s meal was going to more than deliver. The next appetizer we tried was the Crochette di Prosciutto, which is a bechamel croquette stuffed with prosciutto di parma. It’s exclusive to the East Village location, and let me just say if you’re a fan from the Upper West Side wondering if you need to make the trek, I can give you one very good reason. Perfectly crispy at the surface with a filling like a cacio e pepe flavor bomb, gooey and flavorful, it feels like it can’t get any better until you realize halfway through the bite that cubes of prosciutto in the mix are what’s bringing in that smoky, salty, peppery essence. The prosciutto in this dish resembles what most of us would think of as guanciale: it’s cubed, dense, and chewy in all the right ways.
Crochettes with Prosciutto
Moving on the mains! We ordered their Campanelle Al Pesto and the Tagliatelle Al Tartufo, for both a fresh flavor profile and an indulgent one, alongside their Broccolini. The Campanelle featured a bright green, high-quality pesto that is guaranteed to please. Extra notes of lemon added a satisfying zing that really impressed me, and is an ingredient I double up on every time I make pesto myself. The truffle tagliatelle is surely a top-ordered item at Salumeria Rosi, and we obviously had to contribute to that. With fresh truffles shaved on top and their flavor infused throughout, the wide, flat noodles provide the perfect vessel for the decadent yet not overly rich sauce. These two very different dishes provided the perfect counterbalance to each other, and topped off the savory portion of our meal.
We couldn’t leave without dessert, and opted for their unique Pistachio Panna Cotta, which is a signature dessert offering. Set in a bauble shaped mold, the silky, mousse-like pistachio cream was topped with traditional italian custard. It’s surprisingly sweet, and unsurprisingly delicious – the perfect end to our meal.
So many items on their menu are absolutely beckoning for us to come back ASAP. If we had a little more room, I had my eye on their Ricotta with Italian Peaches, which sounds out of this world. If anything we discussed here had you googling your route to this spot, book your table here today. If you’re reading from somewhere outside the five boroughs, might we suggest a gift card as a Valentine’s Day gift for your favorite New Yorker?
