Community Kitchen
Before the banks of upper Amsterdam Avenue transition from Columbia University-Morningside Heights into Spanish Harlem, and local business concerns shift from Art Supplies to Check Cashing, there exists a block-long arcadia: Five affordable, delectable restaurants, relatively isolated from the known culinary world, but each worth a trip.
Max SoHa is a natty trattoria in the enviable style of southern Italy that anchors the block's north corner. With foresight or good fortune, it chose to become the first settler in 2001. The Ulysses S. Grant housing project still looms a few hundred yards away. Looking desolate, it might have been Tom Wolfe's inspiration for black/white racial strife in Bonfire of the Vanities. But just as easily, Max's homemade rigatoni ($10) could be the official dish of Manhattan's Me-Generation. A plate of thick, grooved, slightly curved morsels of perfect pasta with melted mozzarella, tomato and basil is enough to make a person feel important. Best of all, the owner's knack for picking Argentinean red wines yet-to-inflate with mass praise keeps the vino good and cheap ($6).
Pizza lovers should try Sezz Medi, the only place I've encountered that treats recipes like Harlem's Duke Ellington once treated sheet music: using every ingredient, but never the same way twice. Sezz's culinary jazz comes courtesy of a wood-burning brick oven, reportedly made one-of-a-kind in a grotto outside Naples. The heat inside this gastro-temple is intense and uneven, which simultaneously flash-cooks the whole pie to lock in vitamins and flavor, and randomly scorches the thin crust to accent particular flavors. The classic Margherita-tomato, mozzarella and basil-is $10, 14-inches wide and still soft several days after, should you need to take a slice home in a doggy bag. Yet, served on an old-world parlor pedestal right below your nose, I don't think you will.
Certainly, no doggy bags are necessary next door at Max Café, the down-heeled coffee shop and small plates destination from the owners of Max SoHa. Big, comfortable couches and ample electric outlets encourage all-day nibbling and something of a casual relationship with time. Better to just groove on the recreated East Village-circa-1975 ambiance and enjoy your choice of toasted crostini slathered with olive patés ($4); shrimp, octopus, Greek and Caesar salads ($6-$8); French toast encircled with strawberries ($6); and two dozen panini ($7-$8).
Kitchenette-the roomier uptown spin-off of Tribeca's sweetest eatery-has the best breakfast on the strip, and some of the most coveted baked goods in town. So while its dollhouse décor and strawberry shortcake-style are a bit precious for this browned-off writer, I offer my regards. I'm more repelled by the West Village cult of Magnolia Street Bakery, and at least Kitchenette's "comfort food at its best" slogan is borne well by a menu of fantastic farmhouse this, homemade that and heartland every other thing. I've yet to take a bad bite. But if eating on death row, where subtle differences are to live for, I'd order the blueberry muffin ($2) with a side of banana pancakes for breakfast ($9) and the Maryland crab cake with roast tomato tartar for an authentic Mason-Dixon Line dinner ($18).
Turquoise Grill is the youngest and most unproven on the block. Their meat-focused Mediterranean fare includes five savory chicken and lamb kebabs ($11-$13), three rotisserie selections with the same meats marinated in a gentle blend of herbs and spices ($10-$12) and an unexpectedly balanced-i.e., easy on the olive brine-grilled salmon wrapped in grape leaves ($16). Home and Garden television seems to have inspired the do-it-yourself-arts-and-craftsy interior scheme, and recently a new-paint smell emanates from the bathroom's sponge-dabbed walls. The bright dining area could benefit from a few of the new track-light bulbs burning out. Takeout is the best option.
Then again, outdoor seating along Morningside Drive at the crest of the eponymous park encourages takeout from any of the above choices. And the high view of the Bronx is impressive. For an instant I hear Disney's Lion King, Mustafa, turn to his son and reference the perspective from Pride Rock, saying "Look Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom." But then I remember it's Parents' Weekend at Columbia. Simba is an undergrad.
Amsterdam Ave. (betw. 122nd St. & 123rd Sts.)
Max SoHa, 212-531-2221
Sezz Medi, 212-932-2901
Max Café, 212-531-1210
Kitchenette Uptown, 212-531-7600
The Turquoise Grill, 212-865-4745