Friday, October 8, 2010

Grazie Enoteca Maria!

 Back when we lived in Boulder our friends used to regale us of tales of a magical little restaurant on Staten Island where a real Italian Grandmother took over the kitchen each night and made her home region's specialties. Imagine our delight when said friends came to visit and we were able to all go and experience it together! When they told us an Italian Grandmother cooked, I imaged that she was head chef, with sous-chefs carrying out her recipes. Wrong. There she is slaving away in the kitchen all by her lonesome. Good thing it's a small place! They brought out the antipasti platter and we were already smitten, everything was so good! Then came the stuffed artichoke appetizer- wow, what a treat!


Antipasti
Stuffed Artichoke

The owner came and chatted with us a bit, he is one cool dude. Definitely a little hippy-ish and his rock music selection didn't exactly go with the ambiance of the restaurant, but we enjoyed it because it gave the place a lot of personality. The important part is that this guy knows his wines. He helped us choose some really great bottles to enjoy with our meal. The combination of this, catching up with old friends, and inability to pause before attacking the dishes placed in front of us means the picture taking got neglected after appetizers. The pictures wouldn't do it justice anyway, everything was amazing. Do yourself a favor and take a trip on the Staten Island ferry out to this charming restaurant, just make sure to bring cash (although there's an ATM around the corner just in case).

Enoteca Maria on Urbanspoon

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