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The dominant stylistic motif at Centro Vinoteca is a sleek, fashion-conscious black-and-white. The brick walls (and the terrazzo) have all been washed a bright, Mediterranean white. The tabletops are black and so are the chairs, and the low ceilings are adorned, here and there, with the kind of moon-shaped mother-of-pearl mobiles you see in fashion shoots dating from the sixties. If you show up for your table at 8:30 on a Friday evening, you will find the diminutive rooms filled with a boisterous and largely female clientele. The menu is an almost textbook compilation of currently trendy Italian dining styles—small plates, or “piccolini”; an eclectic selection of wines from the “enoteca” wine bar; and rustic pastas salted with an assortment of fatty pork products. The chef in charge is Anne Burrell, a former sous chef at Felidia and a protégée of the great maestro himself, Mario Batali. As is the fashion these days, the little piccolini dishes patter down on the table in endless waves. The antipasti are heftier and more carefully executed (try the good, rusticated pizza with layers of spicy sausage, stracchino cheese, and arugula). But the real reason for visiting Centro Vinoteca is the pastas. Like Batali, Burrell has a knack for taking big, potentially overwhelming flavors and imbuing them with sweetness and light. Her ravioli (one filled with a single gently poached egg, the other with broccoli rabe and Swiss chard) are models of that temperamental genre, and so are the gnocchi, which are crisped around the edges, sunk in a richly chunky lamb Bolognese, and dusted with frizzled onions. — Adam Platt

Note

For peace and quiet, visit at lunchtime, when chef Burrell serves a good “meatball” burger (made with beef, pork, and veal) and a Cubano-style panini with pressed pork.

Kitchen Hours
The kitchen closes at midnight everyday.

Ideal Meal

Eggplant fritters, grilled pizzetta, crispy gnocchi with lamb Bolognese, lamb shank, tarallucci cookies.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (10/8/07)

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