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Amici
Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 3218 Magazine. 504-300-1250. Map.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
The proudest boast of a majority of New Orleans Italian restaurants is, "We're a Sicilian family, and our recipes have been passed down over many generations." One nods one's head at this knowing that there is as much difference between this Sicilian restaurant and that one than there would be if this one were Roman and that one was from New York. You can even break up all the local Sicilian-rooted places into Early, Middle, and Modern Sicilian. (Let's see. That would be Frank's, Impastato's, and Vincent's, respectively.)
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Pizza at Amici.[/caption]
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Although Amici has as extensive a menu as any, the most attractive item on it is pizza. Even in these days when new pizzerias with extraordinary stone, wood-burning ovens are seemingly everywhere, Amici is unique in having a pizza oven that burns coal, just like the original New York pizza parlors had a century ago. That oven turns out not only excellent pizza, but also a fair number of roasted meats and fish, all of which benefit from the hellish temperatures that coal can kick up.
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Pappardelle, Italian sausage, and broccoli raab.[/caption]
WHAT'S GOOD
Most of the menu comprises the classics of Southern Italian cooking, with unique but modest special touches in almost every dish. The sauces are particularly well made, whether they're tossed with pasta or served over a meat or poultry dish. There's a delicacy not often seen in the finished dishes. The menu is too interesting for only very shy diners to order anything like meatballs or lasagna.
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Dining room at Amici. Look out for that light fixture in the upper left.[/caption]
BACKSTORY Phil and Jack Rizzuto opened Amici in late 2013, taking over the space that previously had been the Uptown edition of Byblos. The Rizzutos and their chef Chad Matrana are relatively new to the local Italian scene, although their story is familiar: several generations of Sicilian-Creole family recipes come to the modern era. They have some sort of spiritual connection with Jasper Mirabile Jr. and his excellent, long-running Kansas City restaurant Jasper's, and who does wine dinners at Amici now and then. The space has been a restaurant since the mid-1970s, when an attempt to revive the old Turci's appeared briefly here. It was followed by Spaghetti Eddie's, Monroe's, and Byblos.
DINING ROOM
The dining room is handsome and modern. Two lines of banquette-style tables are balanced by the long bar to the left. In the rear, the kitchen is mostly open to view. Catching sight of a pizza exiting the coal oven is enough to talk you into one of your own.
REVIEWER'S NOTEPAD
More ruminations appear in our Dining Diary. Click on any of the dates below for those reports, each written a few days after a meal at Amici.
5/6/2014 ~ 1/3/2014 ~
Starters Flash-fried calamari House cut fries with parmesan cheese & white truffle oil Spiedini (grilled beef stuffed with provolone, sopressatta, scallions, roasted cipollini onions & shaved grana padano) Mussels Amici (white wine, garlic, tomato sauce Crab & lobster ravioli Coal fired chicken wings Insalata Caprese Beets, roasted pumpkin seeds, basil oil, vincotto, gorgonzola Entrees Pizzas to order, or the classics Nonna Lena's "bruciuluni" (braciolone): pork stuffed with beef, Italian sausage & egg Chicken marsala or parmigiana Broccoli raab, Italian sausage, papperdelli pasta, garlic & olive oil Veal aglio e olio, parmigiana, or marsala Brined roast chicken, salsa verde Piccata di pollo or vitello (chicken or chicken sauteed with Vernaccia wine, capers, lemon) Saltimbocca (pan fried veal filet, prosciutto, sage, pan sauce Bistecca pizzaioli (hanger steak, spicy tomato sauce, spaghetti squash Fettuccine alfredo with shrimp arrabbiata Gamberetto fra diavolo, sauteed shrimp, spicy marinara sauce, pasta Desserts Cannoli Gelato Coconut sorbetto Tiramisu Lemon sorbet Black cherry semifreddo FOR BEST RESULTS
If a dish strikes you as being experimental or more complex than seems right, investigate it further with the waiter, particularly as regards the price. The classics are solid. Be careful of quantities: like most Sicilian restaurants, they really feed you here.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The hanging light fixtures against the wall are poorly placed. They always seem to be right in my face.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment +1
- Consistency
- Service
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine & Bar +1
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Till 11 p.m. FR SA
- Good for children
- Free valet parking
- Reservations accepted
