Lunch at Becco

OK, now let’s talk about Thursday's lunch.

We had reservations at Becco (www.becconyc.com) for 12:30.

Wow. I mean WOW.

I talked about Lydia earlier with regard to Eataly. Let me tell you – Momma got her son and his bud beat all to pieces when it comes to a restaurant.

There was a pretty substantial walk-in crowd here, but what we noticed was that you got to sit in a back room if you had a reservation. This is much quieter than the front dining room and has this great pyramid-skylight so the space is really amazing.

White tablecloths. Real silverware and glasses on the table. A waiter that was Johnny-on-the-spot to take care of his tables. Interestingly enough, we overheard him say he gets off early for New Year’s Eve, because they’re closing down “around 10”. This led to the question of course, as to when they normally close – sometime between 2 and 3 in the morning.

I’ve never comprehended supper at that hour of the night. Breakfast, maybe – but supper, now. It just goes to show the cultural differences that exist in the world.

Anyhow, first they brought a basket with 3 different types of bread in it (including these amazing pencil-thin crunchy breadsticks), a bowl with a homemade hummus for dipping, and a bowl with 3 or 4 different types of olives – and an empty bowl, which we figured out was for the pits from the olive.

OK, here’s the etiquette question from someone who didn’t grow up with olive pits as a normal part of the diet – do you spit them out on the plate, take them out with your fingers, or is there some particular utensil of which I’m unaware for this task??

We opted for the “fingers are useful, but use your napkin a lot” approach.

The menu had dozens of choices, but neither of us had to look any further than the very first thing. They offered a sampling of three different types of pasta – the choices change daily, complemented by an assortment of Italian wines that were pretty reasonably priced.

In fact, there's probably 50 choices for $25 a bottle of italian wines that Lydia has picked specially for this restaurant.  Wines which would probably be significantly more expensive elsewhere.

You start off with an incredibly good Caesar Salad with homemade croutons (after all the bread) and then when you’ve finished that the waiters come by with the first of the pastas. Ours were spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce, a swiss chard and cheese ravioli and some little squiggly pasta (Fusilli? I can never keep them straight) with a bolognese sauce.

The servers were quite obviously groomed by someone with an attention to detail. All had high-end haircuts, wore starched white shirts, black slacks and a necktie.

Not a cheap tie, but an Italian silk tie, in different colors – but they were all tied so that there tended to be a pretty big knot at the neck, but the tie was about 4 or 5 inches shorter than you’d normally expect it.

After watching a bit, we figured out this was intentional – it was to keep the tie from dragging in the food when they leaned over to serve it.

After you finish your first round of pasta, they come back offering you seconds on anything you want.

Yes, we did, although we both knew that we’d regret it later. Topped it off with Cannoli filled with buffalo ricotta cheese and pistachios for desert, too.

Lydia has figured out that if you do good simple food, just like on her television show, people will come back over and over. She’s got it right.