Our friend Lee, who lives on the lower Lower East Side, suggested we try a restaurant he discovered on Division Street called Bacaro.  It was way out there in no man’s land, on the fringe of Chinatown and LES and we had no idea what to expect.  Much to our surprise we came upon the loveliest spot on  a deserted street!

It turns out Bacaro is owned by Frank DeCarlo of Peasant and the similarities are actually pretty obvious in retrospect.  He took the idea of the basement wine bar at Peasant and really expanded it into a romantic basement den, bar and dining area.  We sat in a vaulted ceiling room with a glass wall looking into the wine cellar.  It was dark and lit by single white candles on each table and sconces with Edison bulbs.  The decor is really authentic.  I was convinced we were sitting in an actual old underground tunnel vault.  The furniture is all made of antique barn wood.

The food was absolutely amazing.  We’ve been going to some pretty random restaurants lately, so it was nice to be having an unexpected fine dining experience.  We shared three appetizers and two entrees.  After a full day of drinking it was quite a bit of food.  But we polished off every plate including an entire pork shank!  Our collective favorite was the razor clams.  They came in the most tasty white wine sauce.  When we were finished, we used all of our bread to soak it up.  The gnocci was also fantastic.  We had escargot with classic garlic sauce as well.  We would have thought it was amazing if we didn’t have the razor clam sauce with which to compare it. Overall, everything was great and I would order it all again.  The prices were also really reasonable and portion size was quite large.

Of note, they do serve their wine in the traditional Italian peasant presentation; a small glass. It is one of my pet peeves, however, this time it seemed in keeping with the whole theme.

Thanks to my fellow food bloggers for taking cameras with flashes to dark restaurants…

APPETIZERS

Polpetti – Spicy Fried Meatballs $9

Bovoleti – Snails with Garlic & Parsley  $9

Cannolichi – Razor Clams with White Wine & Lemon  $10

ENTREES

Gnocchi con funghi – in Brown Butter with Mushrooms  $14

Stinco di Maiale – Pork Shank over Polenta  $18

http://bacaronyc.com/
136 Division St. – Lower East Side