Rezdora

By Valerie Kolligian Thayer • July 14, 2022 • Dining & Reviews, Dining Adventures, Lifestyle, Restaurant Reviews

Hi friends,

How are you? It has been awhile since I’ve posted an update to the blog, and truth be told it is largely a reflection of a somewhat quiet cooking life the past month or so. Let’s just say I am really leaning into simple to prepare meals that do not necessarily meet my standards for posting on the blog! Could I be in a culinary rut? Perhaps, but I have been going and coming a bit too much and a routine seems to have escaped our summer thus far which perhaps has put me off balance in the kitchen.

Anyway, I did want to share with you a restaurant that my cousins, Jean, Joyce and her daughter Stella and I visited in New York City back in the beginning of June. Rezdora, located in the Flatiron neighborhood, was recommended by Bill Buford, author of the wonderful book, Dirt who I had the absolute great pleasure of interviewing over Zoom for Wellesley Books during the pandemic. If you haven’t read Dirt or Bill’s previous book, Heat they are just wonderful memoirs of his time working as a chef in France and Italy. If you have a chef or aspiring chef in your family, these books would make wonderful gifts as they are so rich in detail about what really goes on in restaurant kitchens.

At the end of our interview, we had a q&a and he was asked what restaurant he would recommend in his home town of New York and he said Rezdora. Well, I tucked that little jewel in the back of my mind and although it took over a year to retrieve it, I was so happy that (a) I remembered it and (b) that we were able to get a reservation even if it was early at 5:30!

Outdoor seating available…

Since we had traveled to New York that day and not had a proper lunch, we were excited to have a substantial meal together! Rezdora celebrates the food of Emiligia Romagna with a particular emphasis on pasta. The name itself translates to “head of the household” invoking images of a matriarch who is hand rolling pasta. The menu is not too large, but has something to please everyone from creative antipasti, a variety of meats and cheeses, salads, vegetables, creatively prepared and named pastas and a few large plates.

The restaurant is not too large. A 10 seat bar lines one wall of the deep, rectangular space and a banquette lies on the opposite wall with seating for about 22 diners. There is a small upstairs sitting area as well. Thus the hard to come by reservations!

The menu we had back in June has been updated with new items but this is what we enjoyed.

We all started with the cocktail, Hugo which was a combination of prosecco, elderflower liqueur, fruit juices and herbs. Delicious…

As I look back now, we ordered a fair amount of food between the four of us, but we went by the guideline to order one pasta per person and share. We also thought we should share a few things outside of the pasta course because why not! We were celebrating Stella’s graduation from college so we were going all out! As an aside, Rezdora does offer a “pasta tasting menu” that consisted of 5 servings of a wide range of pasta, paired with wines. That could be fun (and filling) to do another time.

As a starter, we had the proscuitto with a side of burrata (ha ha). It speaks for itself – the proscuitto was sliced super thin and draped over the precious burrata and the entire dish melted in your mouth. Yum…

And it went so well with this fett-unta or grilled bread with extra virgin olive oil. Honestly, it was so delicious we ordered another one…

Stella was eagar to do a parmigiano tasting so we ordered this dish of 4 samples of aged parmigiano reggiano, aged young and older, and it was fun to compare notes on which ones we preferred…

An amuse bouche. I wish I could remember what it was filled with, but I do not! I’m quite sure we ate it however…

Unbuckle your belt now because here come the pastas…

Fiore, Fiore Verdi with spring onion, strachiino, parmigiano and lemon…

Anolini di parma, a meat filled stuffed pasta with a parmigiano sauce…

Spaghettoni e Vongole with lupini beans, razor and manila clams, parsley gremolata and lemon zest…

And my hands-down, favorite which is not on their current menu argh was “Grandma Walking Through Forest in Emilia”. Don’t you love the name? Doesn’t it just evoke the image of your grandmother forraging for ingredients to serve in your pasta? Well, my grandmothers may never have foraged but I’m glad someone’s did as this pasta was filled with a black mushroom puree, baby leeks and roasted leeks that was to die for. Of course, I am an extreme mushroom lover so there’s that, but we all agreed this one was a favorite. I do hope they bring it back to the menu. With that name, how can you not?!!!

And lastly, because we needed a little veg, we chose zucchini in tre modi, roasted, fried and marinated. A nice alternative to the pasta…

While we liked some of the pastas better than others, they were all cooked to perfection and clearly made with lots of love. Service at Rezdora was excellent and our server was helpful with our wine selection!

Rezdora offers a nice dessert menu but sweets were not in the cards after our filling meal! But we were also not ready to go home either as the night was young so we asked our server where we might go for an after dinner drink in the area. She suggested the funnest place that I’m sure everyone except the four of us knew about. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures, but if you find yourself in New York give Dear Irving Grammercy a try! You may need a reservation, but we were able to say Rezdora sent us and we were magically whisked to a booth type seating area surrounded by beaded drapes – so fun!

One more fun fact about Rezdora. I’m not a big pod cast person but I do listen to a few on occasion, one of which is by Willie Geist who seems like the nicest man on earth. He has great guests, one of whom was Tony Shaloub most recently of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame. I definitely wanted to listen as I love Tony’s sense of humor and what was a coincidence was that they met to record the podcast over a meal at Rezdora! Why? Well it turns out Mr. Shaloub has an ownership stake in the restaurant. Go figure.

That’s all for today, folks! Until next time when I hope to be back with a recipe to share. xx

One Year Ago: The Woop Woop or St. Germain Martini