PICCOLA CUCINA OSTERIA SICILIANA is one of three storefront trattorias in the West Village
Noah Fecks
You can be forgiven if you get confused trying to find the right Piccola Cucina in the West Village, because it is one of three within a breadstick’s toss of each other. There’s one on Thompson Street and another around the corner on Spring Street and adjacent to that one is the newest, Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana. (There’s another uptown, in Brooklyn and still another in New Jersey.) The way to spot it is to see the line outside the door of people waiting for a table.
Owner Philip Guardian is Sicilian born and proud of his culinary heritage,
Noah Fecks
Chef-owner Philip Guardione opened his first trattoria in 2008, and this, his newest, is most focused on Sicilian fare, with a fond nod towards Catania, his birthplace. He had been executive at Milan’s Four Seasons Hotel before moving to New York to create his mini-empire. Sommelier Alfio Scrivano, who also fills in as manager, racing from place to place, draws on a company wine cellar of 4,000-bottles, so he has been able to cull a list of Sicilian labels from Etna Sud, Etna Nord, Messina and Ragusa.
Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana is a small space with closely set tables and high noise level.
Noah Fecks
“PCOS” is a small fifty-seat room, rustic and pleasantly lighted, with votive candles on the tables. Once inside, at least from seven till nine o’clock, you’ll be hit with a blast of noise, both human and broadcast, and, this being an osteria, it’s a bit cramped. I’d aim for an 8:15 table when the place starts to empty out on weekdays.
For anyone seeking a balance of traditional Italian and regional cuisine, the menu skews towards small plates, between $17 and $29, including the pastas, elaborate breads and focaccia. We began our dinner with savory arancini alla Catanese, pool ball-size fried rice balls filled with stretchy mozzarella and a meat ragù. Plump involtini of swordfish are rolled with burrata and served over sweet cherry tomatoes and basil sauce.
Increasingly in Italy crudi have become popular, not least along the Sicilian coastline, and PCOS serves three kinds. I liked most the carpaccio marinated in citrus yellowtail dressed with green olives, a pretty yellow tomato sauce, crunchy capers and a touch of oregano.
Hearty southern Italian pastas dominate the trim menu.
Noah Fecks
There are eleven pastas on the menu––a cook near the window makes them all––added to with nightly specials, so we tilted toward the regional, like the excellent, traditional maccheroni alla Norma with meaty eggplant in a bright tomato sauce topped with ricotta cheese, and the busiate noodles with a pesto of ground pistachios topped with black squid ink. Hot and spicy ‘nduja sauce distinguished homemade ravioli stuffed with broccoli di rape and burrata cheese in a sausage ragù.
Sharing pastas at a table for four is easy and not pricey.
Noah Fecks
Clearly PCOS knows its guests come for the small plates and the pastas, so there are only three main courses, including the inevitable grilled branzino with olive and caper sauce drizzled with lemon, which I have to say it was one of the best of so many I’ve had in New York—plump, succulent and with the hint of the saline sea.
A skirt steak with mashed potatoes and chimichurri was only okay, as was a somewhat dry Milanese pounded chicken breast.
Tiramisu and Sicilian pastries are the desserts at Piccola Cucina Osteria .
Noah Fecks
Enjoying a Sicilian cannoli is requisite here, but the dessert not to miss, though not Sicilian, is an tiramisù made at your table with lady fingers topped with mascarpone and dashed with espresso and dusted with cocoa powder.
Increasingly New York’s ever increasing Italian trattorias are diverting to regionalism, and southern Italy in particular is having its day. And at Piccola Cucina it is a molto buon giorno indeed.
PICCOLA CUCINA OSTERIA SICILIANA
194 Spring Street
646-478-4788
Open for lunch and dinner daily.