My great uncle Bruno used to say, “Italians never put cheese on seafood.” But that was coming from someone who had never tried chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli’s Parmesan-spiked Lobster Triangoli.
That was also long before the couple hit the scene, making a splash in 2017 with the West Village hit Don Angie, where guests come for big flavor pseudo Italian grandma cooking.
Since Don Angie’s debut, the diminutive restaurant has sustained the interest of New Yorkers—offering some of the most sought-after seats in the city. If you go on the website Appointment Trader, prime time reservations sell for upward of $300—and that’s just to walk in the door. Which probably doesn’t bode well for diners who want to try 50-seat San Sabino, the team’s newest endeavor just a few feet away on Greenwich Avenue, which debuted on March 12. Those seats too will be, unquestionably, tough to score.
Like Don Angie, San Sabino is small. And it riffs off the bold and inspired, globally-accented Italian cooking for which Don Angie is known––now, with a keen eye to seafood.
And while the sibling restaurants each convey different personalities, they’re certainly complementary (both designed by Brooklyn-based GRT Architects), with some overlap beyond plates like similar bentwood chairs and curvy decorative elements.
With its sunny yellow accents, many mirrors and metal accents, plus glossy mahogany wood tables, San Sabino feels light and fun. There’s a wavy bar with a gray marble countertop and 10 bar stools; its backbar is decorated with lacquered egg yolk yellow tiles and set aglow in yellow light. First impression? It looks a bit like an outdoor pool bar set in Capri circa 1960.
And what do you eat when you’re lounging along the Southern Italian coast? Well, seafood (and pasta!) of course.
Scott and Angie are masters of the mashup. They did it at Don Angie (have you tried their sourdough pasta with mezcal-laced chicken and Sicilian olives?) and they’re doing it again at San Sabino.
The first hint that you’re at a Don Angie-adjacent restaurant begins with the cocktail list where you’ll find a dirty martini riff that’s made from garlic bread (yes, you read that correctly), alongside a spritz that’s rooted in the fermented Mexican pineapple drink known as tepache. I can only think of one other occasion (the old Momofuku Nishi) when a chef has leaned so heavily into these two disparate cuisines to coax out a new harmony.
The menu unfurls with raw and chilled seafood—including a perched seashell inlaid with slices of raw scallops shingled between rounds of pickled golden kiwi (who knew?!) in a Piedmontese hazelnut-buttermilk dashi that’s finished with lemon oil and finely grated hazelnuts.
The team is obviously excited about the Cheesy Frittelle—so much so that the dish claims substantial menu turf. The puffy, fried triangles of dough are stained saffron yellow and filled with a gooey mixture of tangy sheep’s milk cheese, honey, and lemon zest; the dish is crowned with more cheese, more honey, plus salt and pepper for a salty-sweet tag-team.
The Caesar salad-inspired Tricolore Sabino is a mix of red and white endive leaves tossed in a lemon vinaigrette, drizzled with an anchovy-garlic-Piave cheese dressing, with crunch coming from nori-anchovy breadcrumbs.
The Lobster Triangoli, which come four to a plate, resemble long flat ravioli blanketed in a white vodka-Parmesan sauce that’s flecked with black garlic. A blank canvas for the surprise burst of vibrant red lobster-studded, Calabrian chili-laced vodka sauce that leaks out once the pasta’s delicate skin is pierced. It’s like an Italian take on a Chinese soup dumpling.
Corkscrew-shaped pasta vongole is plated below a cluster of clam shells in a rich aji amarillo clam broth; it’s not accented with the classic fresh parsley, but a surprise floral pop from cilantro.
Japanese wagyu katsu sandos are having a moment, not just in the US, but all around the world. And at San Sabino, the team added a steak katsu minus the shokupan, breaded and fried, with extra umami from the trail of anchovy-laced chili crisp and toasted pine nuts that snake down the meat’s middle.
When Angie and Scott were designing San Sabino’s menu, they likely had a conversation about one-upping their viral lasagna next-door. What could that be? A strong contender is the Shrimp Parm, which sails out of the kitchen on an oversized silver platter, three giant shrimp butterflied, breaded, fried, and served with all the fixings: red sauce, cheese, and basil, in this case Thai basil.
Hero image: Wild Langoustines / Evan Sung
