By all accounts, real Venezuelan cuisine appears seriously underrepresented in the New York dining scene. Yes, there are the ubiquitous arepa stands at every summer street fair, but in truth, you are about as likely to be served something authentically Venezuelan there as you are to find true 600 thread-count cotton sheets on sale in the next festival stall. And in a city where Venezuelans make up the fifth-largest group of Hispanic immigrants, it’s surprising that until 2004, there were only two Venezuelan eateries in the entire city: Flor’s Kitchen in Greenwich Village and El Cocotero near Chelsea. But things are changing…slowly. Pasita, a small-plate restaurant and wine bar, opened to mixed reviews last October on the site of the former Gioia Pizzeria & Vinoteco. We have been hearing rumors that the restaurant was finally living up to some of its potential, so Jay and I stopped in for dinner last week to investigate.
FULL REVIEW
I had a quick trip to NYC last week so thought I'd do a quick wrap up on some of the food highlights. First off, my friend Steve took me to Pasita, a new Venezuelan-style pizza place and wine bar in the West Village. Pasita specializes in thin-crust pizzas and these didn't disappoint--my prosciutto and arugula pizza was excellent as was Steve's white pizza with artichokes and mushrooms. Jesse's South American-style pizza of shredded beef and manchego may have been my favorite. We also sampled the yucca fries. We'd had so many glasses of the Chilean Carmenere that the owner was nice enough to charge us for a bottle rather than a glass which we learned only when we'd finally stopped drinking and asked for the bill after all the other restaurant patrons had gone home.
FULL REVIEW
LINK: http://www.blogsoop.com/nyc_rid_736.html
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