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Photograph: Arrigo’s of Recent Pond Rd
To start with, there have been Italian sandwiches, and it was good. However ambition tends to develop past what might be contained on a roll. In Ridgewood, two former lunch spots, Arrigo’s and Salvo’s, have, over the previous 12 months, prolonged into the night hours, with menus expanded to match. The 2 spots, related in old-Italian leanings although distinct of their menus, have contributed a brand new tricolore slant to the neighborhood. Arrigo’s is housed in a former Ukrainian deli, however the lace-curtained design is so full you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for Nonna’s. The realm nonetheless has loads of Slavs — the Pierogi Boys is close by — however particularly when refracted by way of the sunshine of the favored Il Gigante, the neighborhood, lengthy dwelling to a Sicilian inhabitants who moved outward from neighboring Bushwick, is taking over a well-recognized forged: Welcome to Little Ritaly!
The place Salvo’s proprietor, Salvatore La Rosa, used to bike his wares across the neighborhood himself, he’s grown, turning out mortadella hoagies and Sicilian tuna sandwiches throughout the day and Sunday-sauce ragù as a part of a small Sicilian-leaning menu, served on Friday and Saturday nights for the reason that starting of the 12 months. It’s grown quietly: The restaurant takes no on-line reservations, and its web site affords nothing however the alternative to purchase an Italian-made biking cap and a Eating regimen Coke. Salvo’s eating room, a retrofitted former shoe-repair store on Forest Avenue, has an identical out-of-time high quality. It retains the unique tile flooring however in any other case appears to be like like a Sophia Petrillo fantasy (“Image it: Sicily, 1922 …”), with handwritten menus, dark-wood partitions, and a hulking old-school Faema espresso machine. Salvo’s serves a really credible fritto misto, with hulking shrimp, tender squid, and a giant fried sardine lazing beneath a bathe of potato chips. Spaghetti con le sarde is good with plump black raisins, if a bit closely bread crumbed, and the all-day-stewed Neapolitan ragù, with quick rib, spare rib, and sausage, is respectably heavy. Pinned to the chair, we solely vacated for a subsequent occasion when requested hours later, spooning up the final dregs of a puckery lemon granita dolloped with cool cream.
Arrigo’s, on Recent Pond Highway, has an identical vibe if a barely extra bold menu. Paul Caici, its chef and co-owner, is readier than La Rosa to make substitutions to the classics: His Milanese isn’t hen or veal however swordfish, and his beef carpaccio options mustard dashi. Caici and his companion, Gary Fishkop, beforehand opened Daphne’s in Mattress-Stuy, which my colleague Tammie Teclemariam praised for “straddling the road between modern and acquainted.” After opening Arrigo’s primarily as a lunch spot in spring 2025, Caici had added dinner by the autumn, and the restaurant now occupies nearly all of his time. (He lives close by and located the restaurant on foot; the Ukrainian former house owners nonetheless reside upstairs.) Some dishes overlap between the 2, with just a few alterations — Arrigo’s roast hen is now not pesto’d, as Daphne’s was, nevertheless it’s nonetheless very properly made and nonetheless comes dripping in au-poivre-ish green-and-pink peppercorn gravy on a pile of thin fries — nevertheless it was the housemade pasta that received my day. Torchiette (“little torches”) are tossed with a white Bolognese made smoky and gamy with guanciale and rubbled rabbit, however the largest shock to me have been the salty pops of taggiasca olives.
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