Long Island Restaurants

Novità

Above the wine lockers at Novità, a three-screen moving image shows a twinkling, nighttime skyline -- an in-flight view of a big city. Chef Ed Davis must like travel.

At this address, he's already brought you a Southern smokehouse, Midwestern chop house and Northeastern oyster bar under the Victory name; and next door, a bustling Belgian brasserie, Waterzooi.

Now, it's time for a trattoria and wine bar, sleek and sharp.

Novità is the fruit of Victory. The new place evokes a diligent set designer's concept of Eurochic, mostly dark and mainly angular. The casual seating area near the bar has a brooding look, more hard-surface Kubrick than fantasy Fellini.

You keep going, passing the wine lockers, where stemware valuables are kept, into a space full of high, half-moon leather banquettes and what look like brushed steel chairs, around white lacquer-topped tables.

It's all cleverly done, part send-up, part serious. And very busy. Novità has immediate buzz, generated from its predecessors and from anyone enjoying the efforts to juice up the often-sleepy Franklin Avenue night.

Chef Davis starts the festivities with "pazzo bread," thick and crusty cuts hinting of truffle oil, with garlic and Parmesan cheese. His little pizzas also are tasty, especially the white number with ricotta and truffle oil; and the husky meatball disc, with ragu and fresh mozzarella.

Mushroom-and-fontina cheese arancini, or rice balls, have crunch and homeyness, ready for a dip in the roasted garlic-and-chick-pea puree or the red pepper coulis. Cornmeal-crusted calamari are crisp, sent out with lemon-caper aioli and charred tomato marinara.

Lobster-and-lump-crab meat fonduta, with well-oiled croutons and green and red grapes, veers from Piedmont, adding Brie. The creamy mix, with fontina and provolone, is cross-borders fondue. But the shellfish flavor is submerged.

Davis excels, however, with a lush, update: bucatini carbonara, with parsnips and spring garlic. Rigatoni in a ragu with meatballs, braised pork, veal and sausage, could star at Sunday dinner. And his bucatini fra diavolo boasts genuine spiciness, even if some of the shellfish are overdone.

Swordfish "chop" Livornese, artfully carved and expertly cooked, rests on soft polenta. It's very good. So is the playful monkfish variation on saltim.bocca, with porcini mushrooms. Davis prepares a juicy sirloin with Gorgonzola-spiked potato hash; and a neatly trimmed, pink rack of lamb, bones aloft above goat cheese polenta and mustard greens. Novità has a solid list of wines by the glass to go with all the dishes.

Then, allow for the professional chocolate hazelnut torte, tiramisu, strawberry shortcake, cannoli. And definitely feast on the cinnamon-sugar dusted "street fair zeppole."

They're satisfying and entertaining, too, as is a lot of Novità. After all, that city on the screens is L.A.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 6/11/06.

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