Puccini

Puccini is a small neighborhood restaurant on Ninth Avenue just north of 54th street in New York City that serves Italian food. I had come across a review of the restaurant recently, and decided that it was the perfect choice for dinner before an evening show at The Roundabout Theater's Studio 54 location.

The restaurant is is rather small, about the width of a townhouse, with space for about twenty patrons only. However, the restaurant has done a decent job of creating a welcoming atmosphere that is not too claustrophobic. One wall is painted a warm yellow and the other is bare brick; both are decorated with wrought iron tea light candle holders and wrought iron brackets that have tea light lanterns hanging over the tables unobtrusively.

We arrived just before seven to a half-filled restaurant which quickly filled almost to capacity within minutes. Unremarkable bread was served (consisting of sliced baguettes and Italian bread with sesame on the crust) with olive oil and butter on request.

The menu is just two pages, with the main entrées on the back, and a selection of pasta and appetizers on the front. The pasta is arranged so that you can choose your pasta (capellini, penne, black linguini) and the sauce that you would like to go with it.

My guest and I each ordered an entrée, skipping the appetizers, as we wanted to be sure we got to the show on time. We had the capellini carbonara and the veal parmigiana. My guest originally wanted the black linguini, but the restaurant said that it was not available, which is unfortunate as I overheard several other tables that wanted the dish during our meal and were likewise disappointed.

The staff is a bit harried, and the waitress we had was a bit flighty, but all in all the experience was decent and offered a nice, inexpensive place to dine.